Revolutionary City Education & Engagement Coordinator

Revolutionary City Education & Engagement Coordinator
American Philosophical Society
"Promoting Useful Knowledge since 1743"

The Center for Digital Scholarship (CDS) at the American Philosophical Society (APS) is seeking a Revolutionary City Education & Engagement Coordinator to work on The Revolutionary City: A Portal to the Nation’s Founding–a multi-institution, collaborative public-facing digital archive (https://therevolutionarycity.org/) of manuscript and printed materials created or received in Philadelphia during the American Revolution (1774-1783). To increase the utility and ensure wide-ranging accessibility of the Rev City Portal, the Coordinator will work closely with the Rev City Project Team to develop document-based content including digital maps, spotlight videos, walking tours, and educator materials. 

Responsibilities

• Survey and select documents in Rev City Portal to be used for developing thematic digital content and digital storytelling;
• Prepare interpretive content for a broad public audience;
• Advise APS Museum Team on the integration of digital material in its 2025 exhibition;
• Work with education teams, both internal and external, to create educator resources;
• Coordinate Education Programs between partnering institutions. 

Position Length: 1-year term, starting in summer 2024.

Position Salary: Full-time, annual salary $50,000

This is a full-time, one-year term, onsite position with benefits. The APS offers a comprehensive benefits package, including health insurance, dental, life insurance, long-term disability, 403b with employer match, and generous paid days off.

ABOUT THE APS
The American Philosophical Society (APS), the oldest learned society in the United States, was founded in 1743 by Benjamin Franklin for the purposes of “promoting useful knowledge.” In the 21st century, it serves to advance knowledge and promote scholarship in the humanities and social, mathematical, life, and physical sciences. Members of the Society are elected from among the most eminent scholars and civic and cultural leaders in North America and abroad. More than 100 living APS Members are Nobel laureates.

The APS Library & Museum’s collections make it among the premier institutions for documenting and exhibiting the history of the American Revolution and founding, the history of science from Newton to NASA, Native American languages and culture, and the development of American anthropology. The Library houses over 13 million manuscripts, 275,000 volumes and bound periodicals, 250,000 images, fine art, and other objects. Museum exhibitions interpret these extensive collections for the regional, national, and international visitors who come to Philadelphia’s historic district. In so doing, the exhibitions aim to nurture the spirit of inquiry, promote critical thinking, and engender enthusiasm for object-based learning by using primary source documents and authentic objects. The Library & Museum also hosts a robust fellowship program, offering over 25 short-term and 10 long-term fellowships each year to scholars using its collections.

ABOUT REV CITY:
This project was created by the American Philosophical Society (APS), the Historical Society of Pennsylvania (HSP), and the Library Company of Philadelphia (LCP). The APS and LCP, founded by Benjamin Franklin, and the HSP, founded to celebrate the memory of the Revolution, hold large and invaluable collections related to the American Revolution and the early national period. But whereas the stories of founders like Franklin and Jefferson are well known, the scattered nature of the records of lesser-known actors has made those lives less accessible to wide audiences. Over the past three years, these institutions created a shared online portal of digitized archival material related to the American Revolution (1774-1783) to break down the institutional barriers between these archives. In an unprecedented way, this portal allows users to discover stories highlighting the lives of a more diverse Philadelphia that have previously been obscured by the physical separation of collections.

The Revolutionary City will educate Americans on the founding moment and its legacy, engage them to better understand and participate in civil dialogue through historical examples, and unite them in an appreciation of the diversity of the American experience and the common bonds that hold its citizens together. This project has been shaped by extensive public-facing, publicly engaged experience of stakeholders from Philadelphia-area research libraries, history museums, and community colleges to make heretofore hidden collections broadly available. 

Qualifications

• Holds a minimum of an M.A. in the humanities. Background in Early American history, preferably revolutionary Pennsylvania;
• Strong ability to develop document-based content for the web;
• Experience in writing and speaking to diverse audiences with a variety of education levels;
• Demonstrated experience in public history;
• Familiarity with tools for Digital Humanities projects, such as StoryMap JS, Timeline JS, Datawrapper, Leaflet, Shiny, etc.;
• Experience working with educators, highly preferred.