Digital Projects

A student studies at the bar seating area of Whispers Cafe with a view of the Newman Tower stairs in the background.

Digital projects are joint efforts between Washington University in St. Louis’ faculty and other supporting archives, societies, museums, collectives, and more. The digital projects are often born-digital and are freely available online through Washington University’s open-source platforms.

Selected Digital Projects

The selected digital projects on this page are just a portion of the Washington University Libraries’ digital projects. A wider array may be discovered through the Digital Search Tools page.

Digital Projects in Music

Special Collections from the Gaylord Music Library include several digital projects, including exhibits, publications, and sheet music collections.

See the Digital Projects in Music page for more information.

Newman Numismatic Portal (NNP)

Funded by the Eric P. Newman Numismatic Educational Society, the NNP is dedicated to becoming the primary and most comprehensive resource for numismatic research and reference material, initially concentrating on U.S. Coinage and Currency.

Selections from the Newman Numismatic Portal is a collection of digital exhibits featuring rare and unique items from the NNP.

Visit the Newman Numismatic Portal
Selections from the Newman Numismatic Portal

Documenting Ferguson

Documenting Ferguson is a freely available resource that seeks to preserve and make accessible the digital media captured and created by community members following the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, on August 9, 2014. Our project aims to provide diverse perspectives on the events in Ferguson and the resulting social dialogue.

For inquiries about the content or technical issues, please contact the Documenting Ferguson team at documentingferguson@wustl.edu.

Learn more with the Documenting Ferguson Collection research guide.

Revised Dred Scott Case Collection

The collection is a full-text, searchable resource that represents the full case history of the Dred Scott Case. In 1846, Dred Scott and Harriet Scott filed suit for their freedom in the St. Louis Circuit Court. This suit began an eleven-year legal fight that ended in the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Dred Scott Case Collection was the first significant digital project undertaken by the Washington University Libraries, collaborating with the Missouri State Archives-St. Louis. Originally launched online in 2000, the site was revised and enhanced with additional documents and coding in 2007.

View the Revised Dred Scott Case Collection

St. Louis Circuit Court Records

At the center of the collection are the “freedom suits” documenting the legal challenges of enslaved African Americans in Missouri.

This digital project is a collaboration between the Washington University Libraries and the Missouri History Museum with contributions from many partners. The project builds on prior projects of the St. Louis Circuit Court, the Missouri State Archives – St. Louis, and Washington University in St. Louis.

Visit the St. Louis Circuit Court Records

The Novels of Fanny Lewald

Fanny Lewald (1811-1889) was a popular and prolific writer of novels, novellas, short stories, travelogues, letters, political essays, and other works. Although Lewald was to become a very well-known, best-selling author, she was largely forgotten within 20 years of her death. Feminist critics rediscovered her in the 1970s, and a few of her works have since been republished.

This collection presents digitized page images from ten (10) of Lewald’s novels presented in their native German, broadening access to this important author’s work and making her writing available to readers and scholars all over the world.

Search the Fanny Lewald Collection on the University Repository

Freedom Suits

The Freedom Suits Collection presents over 400 Circuit Court Record cases in which slaves sued for their right to be free in the state of Missouri. The collection consists of digital scans of original documents with transcripts alongside.

More information on Freedom Suits and specific cases can be found in the University Libraries Research Guides.

Search the Freedom Suits Collection