Last week, Naval Documents of the American Revolution (NDAR) Project Director Christopher F. Minty attended and presented at Taking Stock and Setting Agendas: A Workshop on Data, Digital Humanities, and Early American Studies, hosted by Iona University in New Rochelle, New York. Organized by Nora Slonimsky, Ben Wright, and Mark Boonshoft, the workshop brought together scholars exploring how digital tools and methodologies can reshape the study of early America.

Minty’s presentation focused on “taking stock” of scholarly editions and the role of metadata in shaping their future. Drawing on NDAR’s own editorial practices, he discussed how metadata—long treated primarily as a tool for navigation—can instead serve as a generative layer of interpretation, opening new ways of engaging with Revolutionary-era sources. Minty noted:

“Metadata should not be buried at the back end of editions—it should be at the forefront of interpretation.”

This perspective reflects NDAR’s ongoing efforts to develop exhibit-editions and the NAVDOCS catalog in ways that emphasize accessibility, discovery, and interoperability across digital platforms.

The workshop itself featured wide-ranging sessions on historical GIS, social network analysis, and intimate digital history, alongside a public roundtable on artificial intelligence. Collectively, these conversations reflected the workshop’s dual goals: to assess where digital early American studies stands today and to chart where it might go in the years ahead.

For NDAR, participation in these discussions is timely and vital. As the project continues to innovate in preparation for the 250th anniversary of American independence, events like the Iona workshop provide an invaluable opportunity to exchange ideas, learn from peers, and refine approaches to digital editing and interpretation.