eReviews: The Papers of George Washington Digital Edition

University of Virginia Press, http://rotunda.upress.virginia.edu/pgwde

WHAT IS IT? The Papers of George Washington Digital Edition (PGWDE) is a joint product of the University of Virginia Press's Rotunda imprint and the Papers of George Washington at the University of Virginia. The online file offers researchers the complete text of the 52 printed volumes published by the University of Virginia Press through 2005. It contains six series—"Diaries," "Revolutionary War," "Colonial," "Confederation," "Presidential," and "Retirement"—and draws on 135,000 documents, including all of Washington's writings, as well as letters written to him. Over the next 20 years, Rotunda plans to publish 40 more volumes.

HOW DOES IT WORK? This file is a little different from most of the online products reviewed here. The home page looks more like the frontispiece of a book, with a portrait of the president, a paragraph of introduction, and links to the Editor's Introduction, Acknowledgments, and Contributors figuring much more prominently than the working links for Home, About, Contents, Search, Preferences, Log Out, and Help.

The About page is a lengthy discussion of the file's relation to the printed edition, along with descriptions for navigation, browser requirements, etc. Contents takes you to the browsable portions of the file: a Chronology, made up of writings dating from the 1740s to the 1790s; the Print Edition, the writings divided into six periods in the president's life; and the Index, which lists the main entries.

Search scours the full text by word, author, recipient, and date (or date range) across all the material.

CAN YOU USE IT? This is a highly scholarly, serious research product. But I couldn't help it: I began by searching for "dentures." And I found several letters from 1791 to 1792 between Washington and his dentist, John Greenwood. In the first, Washington notes that he's received the letter and box Greenwood sent "of the 6th" and found the contents of the latter "perfectly agreeable." A note attached to this entry states that the false teeth Greenwood crafted "were made with ivory and human teeth." So…no wooden teeth. Another popular historical legend debunked!

It's easy to search by author or by recipient: you can enter a name or choose among the full list of authors available via a link. I was disappointed to find only one letter from Martha Washington to her husband, dated 30 March 1767 from Mount Vernon—a note, really, appended to the letter from another. But the accompanying scope note points out that this is the only letter written by her to him known to have survived. In contrast, there are 60 letters between Washington and Thomas Jefferson, dating from 3 March 1784 to 10 March 1791, revealing a lively correspondence.

The links for Home, About, Contents, Search, Preferences, Log Out, and Help are persistent throughout the search screens, but they are tucked under the file's title and the editor's name in smaller font links. If you don't look carefully, you might miss them entirely. The system also makes use of a series of navigational "compasses" for Chronology, Print Edition, Index, and Search, and, frankly, I found them annoying. They're pretty big overall, but their "live, hotspots" are small and a pain to use. Better the word links were larger and bolder.

WHAT'S THE COST? $6,630 for Tier 6 research universities (very high research activity); $4,973 for Tier 5 research universities (high research activity), doctoral/research universities, and master's institutions with large programs; $3,448 for Tier 4 universities and colleges with medium and small master's programs and special-focus institutions (schools of law) and baccalaureate (arts & sciences) colleges; $2,055 for Tier 3 baccalaureate general colleges, baccalaureate/associates institutions, and research institutions with 50 or more full-time employees; $1,326 for Tier 2 associates institutions and special-focus institutions; and $663 for Tier 1 high schools, unaffiliated individuals, and research institutions with fewer than 50 full-time employees.

Public-library pricing is based on the size of population served; please contact Jason Coleman at jgc3h@virginia.edu for more information.

HOW GOOD IS IT? The content is wonderful, but the arrangement and presentation could be better. To the bothersome compasses and the understated major links, I need to add that the basic color scheme is jarring. It looks to be a play on red, white, and blue, but on my screen (which displays true colors) the background is pinkish, and the red text was hard on my eyes. A 9.5 it is, then.

THE BOTTOM LINE Recommended for content to research libraries, large public libraries, and others serving serious American history scholars. For a free trial please go to rotunda.upress.virginia.edu:8080/register/default.xqy.