ORLANDO, Jan. 18, 2024 – People, Religion, Information Networks, and Travel, or PRINT, an academic initiative housed in the history department at the University of Central Florida, has been awarded a substantial grant of $330,253 by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC), which the UCF College of Arts and Humanities is matching dollar-for-dollar.
This Major Collaborative Archival Initiative grant, awarded by a branch of the U.S. National Archives, will propel the PRINT portal towards its mission: to shed new light on the intricate history of early modern migration in the Atlantic world.
PRINT is a collaborative project dedicated to mapping the communication networks of early modern European religious minorities and tracing their influence on the dynamic patterns of migration in the Atlantic world.
Originally evolving to address issues of religious intolerance, the connections took on a life of their own as people with different interests used them to funnel information about the logistics of movement and mobility. PRINT explores history through the lens of interconnectedness and resilience.
Rosalind Beiler, associate professor of history and co-principal investigator of the PRINT Project, in partnership with Amy Giroux, associate director of the Center for Humanities and Digital Research, is spearheading this endeavor. “The PRINT portal is pioneering,” Beiler says. “It will make accessible a digital collection of manuscript correspondence sourced from archives in five different repositories, spanning four distinct countries, and written in three languages. What makes PRINT truly unique is its commitment to transcending national library and archive cataloging standards.”
The grant will be allocated over a three-year period and will support student efforts to process images, conduct research and create metadata from these historical letters. It also ushers in several groundbreaking aspects for the PRINT Project:
In addition to these initiatives, PRINT will also introduce a mapping tool to query and map the connections found in the historical documents, further enhancing the discoverability of the manuscripts and their usefulness for researchers and scholars.
PRINT’s receipt of this grant from NHPRC showcases its commitment to studying early modern migration history. By breaking down national barriers and embracing innovative approaches to historical research, PRINT is poised to revolutionize our understanding of the past.
This grant is a significant step toward preserving the legacy of early modern migrants – in this case, religious minorities – and ensuring their stories resonate with a global audience.
For more information about the PRINT Project and its initiatives, visit chdr.cah.ucf.edu/print .