No doubt some of our faithful Scout Report readers have an interest in reading historic documents, and perhaps a few have some family items written in an ancient and formidable hand that they might need some help reading. If so, this nice online tutorial on palaeography (or the practice of reading old handwriting) from the National Archives (in conjunction with the School of Library, Archive and...

Papers Past is an ambitious effort by the National Library of New Zealand to digitize and share over 250,000 pages from historic New Zealand newspapers. The project started in 2001, and the whole collection was made completely searchable in 2009. The materials here cover the years 1839 to 1945, and they feature 61 publications from all regions of New Zealand. Visitors can search through the...

Born in 1872 in Ohio, Paul Laurence Dunbar is generally recognized to be the first African-American poet to achieve world-wide recognition for the elegancy and honesty of his published work. This site, provided by the Wright State University Libraries, provides access to some of Dunbar’s lovely poetry, along with a selection of photographs of the poet himself. Visitors may want to start by reading...

During his life, Walt Whitman carried around a number of notebooks in which he jotted down his thoughts and feelings. It is estimated that during his life, Whitman created around 100 of these notebooks, and many of them are now in public repositories. This particular collection from the American Memory Project at the Library of Congress affords visitors access to four of these celebrated...

Several years ago, Arts Council England funded a project to create an online digital archive of English 20th and 21st century poetry magazines, and this website represents their efforts. Visitors can search the entire contents of the archive from the homepage, or they may also wish to browse a list of the publications also available here. Several dozen magazines are featured on the homepage, and...

The phrase "Rammer Jammer" is a curious one, though it may be well known to fans of the University of Alabama's football team. It is a common cheer used by the Crimson Tide during away football games, and its name is derived from the school's celebrated humor and literary magazine. First published in 1924, the Rammer Jammer captured the zeitgeist of campus life through jokes, articles, cartoons,...

The Rare Book Room is a somewhat eclectic collection; it consists of about 400 digitized books contributed from libraries all over the world, including the US Library of Congress, The British Library, the American Antiquarian Society, universities as diverse as Stanford, Southern Methodist, and Oxford, as well as a few private collectors. The books were photographed at a high resolution, "in some...

The Library of America's is known for offering up the best of "Classic American writers, classic American books", and their blog is a veritable trove of just that. The site offers a daily update, complete with links to special stories recently featured in their critical print editions, along with video features, interviews, and rare items of interest. Recent posts include an excellent bit of...

Created and maintained by Professor Ian Lancashire, Representative Poetry Online is both a nod back to poetry's past in terms of its content, and a look to the future (and present) as it exists online here at this site. The approximately 3100 hundred or so poems offered here are culled from the volume, "Representative Poetry", which was first published in 1912. In fact, this is the third version...

From the University of Glasgow's Centre for Robert Burns Studies (also responsible for Editing Robert Burns for the 21st Century, as featured in the 11-13-2020 Scout Report), this course explores the poet's writings, songs, manuscripts, and objects. The course is designed for beginners; curiosity is the only prerequisite. Led by a team of literary experts and Burns enthusiasts, students will be...