Assignment 1

[ahunker]

@bsf15 @ebeshero

Tasks for the Week:

• Find outside sources (letters, Miranda's inspiration book) and create simple markup

• Look at previous network graphs and identify songs we could go more in-depth with identifying character references outside of formal names

• Possibly start research concerning specific dates and events to relate to the musical and its historical accuracy

[ahunker]

Here are a few things I found while researching some of the points above:

• Miranda's inspiration book: Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow. I ordered the book so we will have it as a reference to use in the future of this project.
• Here is a link to some of Hamilton's handwritten letters. It's a database from the New York Public Library's Digital Collections.
• Here is a link to a wonderful timeline of Hamilton during the Revolution. It doesn't have a lot of dates or events, but it's a good starting point. We already tagged dates in the lyrics so matching them up to this timeline will help us start to create our own. I also created a map for the initial site. I wonder if we can use the locations as a way to pinpoint Hamilton's movements and align them to dates using both the musical and historical sources.
• When looking at Hamilton's letters, I was thinking of a very simple mark up. I would suggest we stick to marking basic structural features using TEI and pay special attention to names, dates, and places using similar elements as our markup of the lyrics, such as <persName>, <placeName>, and <date>. If @ebeshero has a suggestion as to where to start with coding the letters or can point us to an example, I would appreciate it.

I think Bri and I need to sit down and comb through this information and do some practical coding together. If we could find a time to meet up this week, if only for an hour or so, I think it would be super beneficial.

[ebeshero]

@ahunker I wonder if the letters might be kind of a lot to take on...they don't look all that easy to read, and transcription might take a while, even before recognizing names and dates in the letters. I think the original idea of simply identifying specific events and documenting what's fictional vs. what's historical in the musical encoding is likely to better suited to developing the project!