Project Contributors
The Old North Foundation of Boston
Elisabeth Nevins, Director of Education and Interpretation, Project Director
Laura Northridge, Director of Operations, Project Director
The Old North Foundation was responsible for overall project management, including oversight of services provided by project contributors, budget management, and grant reporting. In addition, staff contributed to the conceptual and pedagogical design, provided production design services for the website, and directed revisions, updates, and copyediting for the final version of the Tories prototype.
Baron Consulting
Christine Baron, Principal
Ms. Baron oversaw the consolidation of the Old North’s archives and the first investigations into the materials found therein. From those materials, she developed the interpretive plan for Tories, Timid, or True Blue? and directed the historical research uncovering the stories of the Old North’s 1775 congregation. Additionally, Ms. Baron developed the conceptual framework for Tories, and conducted both the formative and summative evaluations of the website.
HyperStudio for Digital Humanities, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Kurt Fendt, Director
Karen Verschooren, Project Manager (2007-2008)
Whitney Trettien, Graduate Research Assistant, Comparative Media Studies, MIT
MIT’s HyperStudio for Digital Humanities advised on and contributed to the conceptual and pedagogical design, defined functional requirements, and led the project team in gathering standards based information (metadata) on historical documents.
Myriad, Inc.
Ted Groves, Principal
Jane Cuthbertson, Art Director
Elizabeth Menard, Lead Designer, Programmer
Dan Griscom, Programmer
Myriad consulted throughout the project on information architecture and human factor aspects of the conceptual design. Myriad’s expertise was applied to all user-facing elements including online brand, interface design and functional behaviors. Myriad also built and coded the entire site.
New England Historic Genealogical Society
D. Joshua Taylor, Research Services Coordinator
Rhonda R. McClure, Genealogist of the Newbury Street Press
Researchers at the New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) conducted research in primary and secondary source documents to create and interpret the genealogical narratives of the families of Old North Church. Working from resources at NewEnglandAncestors.org, the NEHGS Research Library, and other area repositories, NEHGS added information beyond names and dates for members of the congregation, adding to the overall narrative of the congregation in 1775.
Independent Scholars
Michaela Thompson, biographical research
Ms. Thompson conducted the foundation surveys of the 1723-1775 congregations and preliminary biographical research of select members of the congregation.
Jane Lyden Rousseau, crypt research
Ms. Rousseau conducted the first extensive survey of the crypt, its contents, and the role of funerary practices at Old North.
Massachusetts Historical Society
Laura Lowell, Manuscript Processor
Brenda M. Lawson, Director of Collection Services
Elaine Grublin, Reference Librarian
The Massachusetts Historical Society (MHS) was responsible for the consolidation and cataloging of the entire contents of the Old North Church archive. In addition, MHS staff guided team researchers and aided in the document digitization process.
Northeast Document Conservation Center
David Joyhall, Technical Photographer
Staff of the Northeast Document Conservation Center provided digital imaging services for the project.
Project Advisors
William M. Fowler, Distinguished Professor of History, Northeastern University
Brenda M. Lawson, Director of Collection Services, Massachusetts Historical Society
Pauline Maier, Professor of History, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Chernoh Sesay, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, DePaul University
Rebecca Tannebaum, Lecturer, Department of History, Yale University
Project Funders
Primary funding for Tories, Timid, or True Blue? was provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities through a Digital Humanities Start-Up Grant with additional funding from the Tauck Foundation to support educational program development and MassHumanities to support historical research.