Dean Irvine

This ACLS Digital Extension Grant funds the extension of an existing online platform to enable a new digital Critical Edition of Franz Boas and George Hunt’s landmark 1897 book, "The Social Organization and the Secret Societies of the Kwakiutl Indians." In creating and later amending the book, Boas and Hunt produced vast archival and museum collections. This project—a collaboration between anthropologists, Kwakwaka’wakw people, and international institutions—has re-assembled and analyzed this archive for a print Critical Edition, and has digitized the relevant materials. It is now expanding its partnerships to extend the functionality of RavenSpace, a Scalar-based platform at University of Washington Press/UBC Press. The development of a new suite of media annotation and navigation tools is supporting the completion of the digital edition and contributing to a powerful new platform for future critical editions in Indigenous Studies.