Magazine of Early American Databases (MEAD)

The Magazine of Early American Datasets (MEAD) is an online repository of datasets compiled by historians of early North America. MEAD preserves and makes available these datasets in their original format and as comma-separated-value files (.csv). Each body of data is also accompanied by a codebook.  MEAD provides sweet, intoxicating data for your investigations of early North America and the Atlantic World. 

MEAD is sponsored by the McNeil Center of Early American Studies and the University of Pennsylvania Libraries. 

Please click on the titles of the datasets below for full bibliographic information, files in original and .csv format, codebook, and more. 

If you would like to submit data, please contact Billy G. Smith (bgs at montana dot edu) or Andrew M. Schocket (aschock at bgsu dot edu).

Please submit your data! Although clean data is nice, better to submit messy data than no data at all. Messy files can be replaced with cleaner ones in the future. Messy data mounted on MEAD is preserved; messy data waiting forever to be cleaned will be lost. OpenRefine is a free, easy tool to use to clean data. A tutorial on using OpenRefine is available from Programming Historian: https://programminghistorian.org/en/lessons/cleaning-data-with-openrefine

We welcome coordinated submissions to MEAD and to the Journal of Slavery and Data Preservation (JSDP), in which data articles are published in the JSDP and the dataset is ingested into Enslaved.org’s linked open data hub, while the dataset is preserved with MEAD. Simply indicate in your submission if you would like to pursue this option if your dataset is relevant to both platforms.  

For more about this project, read the feature on it on Common-Place.org. 

Questions? please contact Billy G. Smith (bgs at montana dot edu) or Andrew M. Schocket (aschock at bgsu dot edu). 

The MEAD-iators who brought you this resource: 
Mitch Fraas, Digital Research Services, University of Pennsylvania Libraries 
Nicholas Okrent, Research and Instructional Services, University of Pennsylvania Libraries 
Andrew M. Schocket, Department of History and American Culture Studies Program, Bowling Green State University 
Billy W. Smith, Department of History, Philosophy, and Literary Studies, Montana State University
Sarah Wipperman, Repository Services, University of Pennsylvania Libraries

 

 

 

McNeil Center for Early American Studies (MCEAS)

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  • Dataset
    St. Martinville Louisiana Baptism Network
    (2022-12-01) Merring-Darling, Kathy; Kane, Maeve
    This dataset includes a transcription of the baptismal register for the French Catholic church Saint-Martin des Attakapas, now modern St. Martinville Louisiana, as well as a cleaned version of each baptism formatted as source-target pairs for social network analysis. The data includes 163 baptisms from 1756 to 1794, mainly of displaced Acadians. A handful of enslaved and Indigenous people are also represented. The data has been prepared for network analysis by regularizing the spelling of names. Source/Target pairs for network analysis were created by creating a pair between all adults who participated in a baptism. The network is assumed to be undirected. The year of baptism or edge creation is included in the edgelist file. This dataset is a part of the Magazine of American Datasets (MEAD). To view more of the collection, visit https://repository.upenn.edu/exhibits/orgunit/mead.
  • Dataset
    Founders Online Correspondence Metadata
    (2020-01-01) Kane, Maeve
    This dataset is a cleaned version of the Founders Online (founders.archives.gov) author/recipient metadata available as of June 2020, formatted as an edge file for network analysis. This metadata includes only letters with authors and recipients, and does not include metadata for documents in the Founders Online database with no author or no recipient, such as receipts or account books. Source/Target pairs for network analysis were created between each author and recipient. In the case of multiple authors or multiple recipients, were split into multiple records with only one author and one recipient each. For example, the letter "Sarah Read to Benjamin and Deborah Franklin, 10 April 1734," was split into two records: one with ‘author: Sarah Read’ and ‘recipient: Benjamin Franklin,’ and the other with author: ‘Sarah Read, recipient: Deborah Franklin.’ Links were not made between multiple authors or recipients of a letter. Names were standardized with as little change as possible: for example, the spellings "Jacquelin Ambler," "Jaqueline Ambler," and "Jacquelin (Jaquelin) Ambler" in the transcriptions were merged into simply "Jacquelin Ambler." Gender of individuals in the network was assigned by first names or historical fact, or if ambiguous for a pseudonym, group of people, or unidentifiable, was left marked NA. The dataset includes 163,671 edges between more than 17,000 individuals. Fields also include the original title of the letter, papers project within Founders Online, permalink to the letter transcription and year, month, and date of the letter. This dataset is a part of the Magazine of American Datasets (MEAD). To view more of the collection, visit https://repository.upenn.edu/exhibits/orgunit/mead.
  • Dataset
    Haudenosaunee Economic and Social Connections, 1695-1726
    (2022-01-01) Kane, Maeve
    This dataset is a cleaned version of the account book of fur trader Evert Wendell in Albany, NY, transcribed from the original held by the New-York Historical Society. The account book is also available transcribed and translated in a published edition edited by Kees-Jan Waterman and Gunther Michelson. This dataset documents the social connections between 102 Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) and Mahican people between 1695 and 1726, and has been prepared for network analysis by regularizing the spelling of names and using information from the published version of the account book to match individuals who appear under differently spelled names where possible. Source/Target pairs for network analysis were created for individuals with documented interactions with one another, such as people who bought gifts for another person, people who vouched for the credit of another person, or people who traveled together. The network is assumed to be undirected. Date information for edge creation is not included in the dataset but is available in the published version of the account book. Individuals are identified by gender and nation where possible. Individuals in the edge sheet are identified by ID number listed in the nodes sheet. This dataset is a part of the Magazine of American Datasets (MEAD). To view more of the collection, visit https://repository.upenn.edu/exhibits/orgunit/mead.
  • Dataset
    Munsee Economic and Social Connections, 1712-1732
    (2022-01-01) Kane, Maeve
    This dataset is a cleaned version of the transcribed account book of an anonymous Dutch trader in Ulster, NY, published and edited by Kees-Jan Waterman and J. Michael Smith. This dataset documents the social connections between 156 Munsee people between 1712 and 1732, and has been prepared for network analysis by regularizing the spelling of names and using information from the published version of the account book to match individuals who appear under differently spelled names where possible. Source/Target pairs for network analysis were created for individuals with documented interactions with one another, such as people who bought gifts for another person, people who vouched for the credit of another person, or people who traveled together. The network is assumed to be undirected. Date information for edge creation is not included in the dataset but is available in the published version of the account book. This dataset is a part of the Magazine of American Datasets (MEAD). To view more of the collection, visit https://repository.upenn.edu/exhibits/orgunit/mead.