The John Dickinson Writings Project, directed by Jane Calvert and co-directed by Mark Richard Lauersdorf, is the recipient of a $200,000 Scholarly Editions Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The grant is awarded to help in the preparation of materials that are currently only available in inaccessible or insufficient editions.

John Dickinson (1732-1808) was one of the most influential and prolific of America’s Founding Fathers. Known as the "Penman of the Revolution," he wrote more than any other figure for the American cause, gaining for himself an international reputation as one of America's leading patriots. Among his writings are America's first patriotic song, many of the seminal issuances of the congresses, and scores of writings dealing with topics such as education, the military, Native Americans, religion, and international relations.

The John Dickinson Writings Project undertakes for the first time to collect, edit, and publish in print and digital editions everything he wrote for public consumption as a member of all the congresses and conventions of the Founding Era, governor of the states of Delaware and Pennsylvania, and as a private citizen. This collection, containing not only some of America's most famous founding documents but also many newly discovered ones, will open up a new window on the birth of America for scholars, students, and the public.  

“This award from the highly competitive NEH Scholarly Editions program continues the string of recent grant successes by faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences working in the area of Digital Humanities, applying digital tools, methods, and models to scholarship in the humanities, arts, and social sciences,” said Lauersdorf.

“UK's Collaboratory for Research in Computing for Humanities is proud to be able to assist these scholars in pursuing their projects and these funding opportunities and hopes that this most recent success will encourage other faculty in A&S to engage in Digital Humanities research,” Lauersdorf added.