Dartmouth's Charter Becomes More Accessible and Interactive
Dartmouth traditions are vast, formed and informed by more than 250 years of historical precedent, legacy, and documentation. Some of those traditions were originally prescribed in the “Charter of Incorporation of Dartmouth College,” and they’re followed to this day. For instance, at Commencement ceremonies, dignitaries carry Dartmouth heirlooms and artifacts, including a copy of the charter, as part of the opening procession. The charter also makes an appearance at presidential inauguration ceremonies, conveyed by the Board of Trustees to the incoming president.
However, it’s rare for Dartmouth’s charter to come out of storage due to its prohibitive weight and size, limiting how students and researchers engage with it. While there was a previous digital version of the charter, researchers and community members could not readily access high-quality images or read a transcription alongside it. Now they can.
Cohesive, Accessible, and Interactive Digital Experiences
Regularly assessing older, digitized materials from the Libraries’ collections ensures they’re relevant, usable, and can support scholarship at Dartmouth and beyond. Re-digitization projects are part of the Libraries' ongoing commitment to build and design cohesive and accessible online experiences that support research. Using new tools and technologies, historical documents become more interactive and broadly usable across research disciplines with layers of meaning added beyond the text.
As Dartmouth’s founding document, the charter is a particularly special object that met the criteria for re-digitization. Morgan Swan, Special Collections Librarian for Teaching & Scholarly Engagement, who refers to it in his teaching, highlights the positive impact of “providing transparent and open access” to Dartmouth's charter. He adds that its re-digitization is “symbolic of the Libraries’ dedication to preserving foundational community documents.”
