June 14, 2012
Our website is always a work in progress for us. We are continually thinking of how to tweak and add enhancements that will make it a better and better tool for our users. The ability for our users to create and curate collections of their own is an idea we are working on making bigger and better over time, including creating a Community page on the website where users can browse other users’ collection and we can feature Roosevelt scholars’ collections.
In the meantime, have you created a collection on our website? It’s so easy! Create an account and get collecting. You can create as many collections as you want for any person, place or event. One thing I like to do with my collections is tell a story by curating a selection of documents that highlight one part of Roosevelt’s character. Two you can currently browse, and I am always adding to, are Science and Natural History and TR and Books.
Science and Natural History is a collection of documents examining Roosevelt’s relationship with the natural world. He was an avid biologist his entire life and studied Natural Science during his years at Harvard University. Many of his books look at the natural world and his relationship to it, both as an observer and as a hunter. This collection includes one of Roosevelt’s earliest essays on insects, letters discussing his hunting and conservation work, as well as letters in which Roosevelt is debating with top experts over his opinions. Even as late at 1917 Roosevelt was writing essays for publication on the natural world.
Roosevelt was a voracious reader so his relationship to books is one of the most important in his life. TR and Books is a collection of documents which tries to illustrate that relationship and its development over his lifetime. An early letter to his sister about reading at Harvard, reviews of a book he published while President, a list of works included in his famous Pigskin Library. Each document adds another piece to understanding what books and reading meant to Roosevelt throughout his life.
I always like to point out this tool to teachers especially who can use My Collections to curate documents for students or encourage students to create their own collections for use on classroom projects. However, it is also a tool for the casual user to keep track of the stories that are most interesting to them as they explore our diverse digital library.
To look at more of my collections, visit my Public Collections home page. Happy Collecting!