ANN ARBOR—A panel of humanities specialists chose the University of Michigan’s American Verse Project as one of the first 20 Web sites to appear on EDSITEment, an Internet site developed by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), the Council of the Great City Schools and MCI Communications Corp. EDSITEment is at http://edsitement.neh.fed.us and features lists and links to the top sites in the subject areas of history and social studies, English and language arts, foreign languages and art history along with online learning guides to the materials.

U-M’s American Verse Project, at http://www.hti.umich.edu/english/amverse/, is an ongoing collaborative project between the U-M Humanities Text Initiative (HTI) and the U-M Press, providing an electronic archive of volumes of American poetry written prior to 1920. The full text of each volume is available and may be copied freely by individuals for personal use, research, and teaching (including distribution to classes). Specific instructions for use of the text is located on the Project’s home page.

The American Verse Collection includes poetry by such familiar names as Edgar Lee Masters, Edgar Allan Poe, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Emily Dickinson. Also included are works by less familiar names such as Priscilla Jane Thompson, James E. McGirt and Richard Watson Gilder. Though most of the archive is made up of 19th century poetry, a few 18th century and early 20th century texts are included. Another goal of the Project is to provide scholars with the ability to integrate all or part of the texts in their work. An example: someone writing about Emily Dickinson can embed links in an electronic text pointing the reader to various poems, stanzas or lines from the volumes in the Project without having to replicate the material. Additional volumes of poetry are being added continually.

http://www.hti.umich.edu/english/amverse/U-M PressU-M News and Information ServicesUniversity of Michigan