Like Us? Help Us Reach the Next 1,000

At The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia, we have a lot to celebrate this month. We have the long-awaited Super Bowl victory, now added to our page about professional football. One of our co-editors, Howard Gillette, has been selected to receive the 2018 Visionary Historian Award from the Historical Society of Washington, D.C.  In addition, throughout this February we are celebrating Black History Month by highlighting more than thirty of our articles on African American history in the Philadelphia area, including essays about the region’s role in the Civil Rights movement, prominent black Philadelphians, and contributions from black communities in the region. We have at least one essay a day lined up to be shared on our Facebook page for the whole month of February. We have a diverse collection of essays on African American history covering a wide range of topics–our social media feed for this month of celebration will never be boring!

We’re also pleased to announce that we have reached a milestone of 1,000 followers on Facebook. We can’t wait to reach the next thousand with you! As we work to add to our essays available as well as our number of fans across social media, we’d love to hear from you about what your favorite articles have been or if you have a topic you’d like to nominate for an essay.

We love engaging with our fans across social media with comments, shares, and suggestions. If you haven’t already, please like us on Facebook at the Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia and follow us on Twitter @Backgrounders for daily essay postings and notifications about new articles up on the site. We look forward to reaching the next thousand followers and sharing some great essays with you this year!

Milestone: 650 Topics Published

We’re pleased to announce that The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia has reached a new milestone of 650 topics published online. The 650th topic, published on December 27, 2019, is Turnpikes, written by the encyclopedia’s Editor in Chief, Charlene Mires.

Our publishing during 2019 was supported by generous contributions by individual donors, including those who gave during our annual one-day fund-raiser on Rutgers Giving Day. Watch for your next opportunity to contribute on March 25, 2020–the next Rutgers Giving Day–or add your support any time by using the link on our home page. Thank you!

National Endowment for the Humanities
Awards Two-Year Grant for the
Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia

Our project reached an important milestone this week with the awarding of a two-year, $300,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. We are so grateful to the many organizations and individuals who have brought our project to this point: more than thirty partner organizations, more than 150 authors and editors, our digital publishing team and colleagues at our home base at Rutgers-Camden, and of course the users of the encyclopedia who attend our events, offer valuable suggestions, and use this resource every day. The NEH funds will support the next two-year period of accelerated content development, especially topics that span the Greater Philadelphia region.  Check the site often and watch us grow!

News release by Rutgers-Camden

National History Day Webinar

nhd-logoTeachers, please join us on Wednesday, November 2, at 4:30 p.m. for a free webinar tutorial with our education outreach coordinator, Melissa Callahan. The webinar will provide an overview of the resources available from The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia and offer ways in which students might use those resources to create an outstanding National History Day project. Once you sign up for the webinar you will receive a confirmation email.

NEH Teacher Institute: Cultures of Independence

Applications are due March 2 for this new teacher workshop funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Cultures of Independence: Perspectives on Independence Hall and the Meaning of Freedom will raise awareness of how Independence Hall has been involved in the ongoing process of creating a nation and civic life, not just in the magical moment of July 1776.  During each day of  a week-long workshop, 36 teachers will be immersed in a process of discovering and developing strategies for teaching the ongoing history of the American independence. Dr. Charlene Mires, author of Independence Hall in American Memory and Editor-in-Chief of The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia will be the scholar-in-residence. Other editors, contributors, and civic partners of the Encyclopedia will participate as speakers and hosts.

The workshop will be offered twice:  June 21-26 and July 26-July 31. For additional information about the program and procedures for application, visit the workshop website hosted by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

New Call for Authors: Winter-Spring 2015

The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia is expanding and opening new subject categories with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Mayor’s Fund for Philadelphia, and Poor Richard’s Charitable Trust. To join more than one hundred leading and emerging scholars who have already contributed to this peer-reviewed, digital-first project, let us know your choice of topics.

To see the list of topics available link here.

The scope of the project includes the city of Philadelphia and the surrounding region of southeastern Pennsylvania, South Jersey, and northern Delaware. Prospective authors must have expertise in their chosen subjects demonstrated by previous publications and/or advanced training in historical research. Authors will have the opportunity to select feasible deadlines and will have the option of volunteering or receiving modest stipends. To express interest, please send an email describing your qualifications and specifying topics of interest to the editor-in-chief, Charlene Mires, cmires@camden.rutgers.edu. No attachments, please. Graduate students, please include the name and email address of an academic reference.

Guidelines for writers:
https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/about/guidelines-for-writers/

Roster of authors:
https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/category/authors/

Editors and staff:
https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/about/editors/

Connecting the Past with the Present, Building Community, Creating a Legacy