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About the project

Funding for the digitization of this collection was provided by the National Historical Publications & Records Commission (NHPRC), a division of the National Archives. The goal of the project was to increase and enhance access to the John Bigelow Papers, consisting of 139.44 cu. ft. of materials relating to Bigelow and his family over approximately 100 years, through collection description and digitization. This 24-month project will enhance  the Bigelow Collection finding aid and digitize the scrapbooks, papers, and approximately 22,000 letters of John Bigelow, his wife Jane Tunis Poultney Bigelow, and other members of his immediate family held in the Special Collections Department of Schaffer Library at Union College. 

The project began in August 2020, and the online collection became available in June 2022. During this time, more than 22,000 letters, journals, and scrapbooks were digitized, and the finding aid to the collection was enhanced. We will continue to enhance the digital collection to ensure that researchers have access to the most seamless experience possible.

Project team

  • Amanda Greenwood, Bigelow Project Archivist
  • Becky Fried, Digital Projects & Metadata Librarian
  • Kate Grant, Cataloging & Digitization Specialist
  • Corinne Chatnik, Digital Collections & Preservation Librarian
  • Jenn Byrd, Library Web Developer
  • Sarah Schmidt, Director of Special Collections & Archives
  • Joanna DiPasquale, Director of Content & Digital Library Systems

Students that contributed to the project

  • Hieu Hoang, Union College
  • Tuan (Steve) Nguyen, Union College
  • Hung Nguyen, Union College
  • Minh Pham, Union College
  • Diep (Emma) Vu, Union College
  • Tuan Trinh, Union College
  • Ursula Follert, Summer Assistant
  • George Skane, Summer Assistant
  • Aaron Siegelman, Summer Assistant
  • Oliver Taylor, Union College
  • Nikos Perdikogiannis, Union College
  • Daeun (Debbie) Jun, Union College
  • Dang Duong, Union College
  • Dung (Darren) Nguyen, Union College
  • Dmitris Zora, Union College
  • Henry Davenport, Union College