Center for Mark Twain Studies Expands Access to Twain Materials with New Website

Elmira, NY (01/14/2019) — The Elmira College Center for Mark Twain Studies has launched a newly designed website, making access to the Center's vast array of Mark Twain educational and archival materials easier for scholars and the public.

In October 2016, CMTS originally launched a website with the aim of further facilitating the Center's mission of supporting Twain scholarship in its myriad forms, nationally and internationally. From the outset, MarkTwainStudies.org featured a blog about Twain's life and work, information about CMTS events and fellowships, and a small selection of pictures and other documents from the Mark Twain Archive at Elmira College.

In the two years since launching, in addition to maintaining an active blog, the website has become the repository for an ever-growing selection of recorded lectures, book reviews, student artwork, teaching resources, and much more, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors.

"The site really became this great resource for not only scholars, but also for Twain enthusiasts, community members and area visitors wanting to learn more about the legacy of Mark Twain in Elmira," said Dr. Joseph Lemak, director of the Center. "Also, the site provided a place for our to promote and share information on the Quarry Farm Fellowships, the Trouble Begins and Park Church lectures, the Quarry Farm Weekend Symposia, and the wide variety of Twain-related events that occur each year."

Dr. Matt Seybold, assistant professor of American literature and Mark Twain studies at Elmira College, designed and maintains the original site.

"The challenge was no longer finding material to populate the site," said Seybold. "The challenge had become choosing which opportunities and site features to pursue based on limitations of time and technological acumen."

With that challenge in mind, Lemak commissioned a professional redesign of the site by Paul Stonier Design.

"Visitors to the redesigned site will immediately appreciate the cleaner layouts, more intuitive menus, and higher quality images," said Lemak. "However, and most importantly for our vision of future growth, Stonier's work also gives the site a set of capabilities which will allow CMTS to roll out new and better resources in the coming years."

First among these is the digital edition of David Fears's Mark Twain Day By Day. This exhaustive chronology of the life of Samuel Clemens was originally published in four enormous print volumes between 2008 and 2014. It has since become and invaluable reference for scholars who have the good fortune of having access to it, as the size and expense of the books confined it primarily to university libraries and a few private collections.

That is, until now.

Independent Twain scholars, teachers, students, hobbyists, and other Twainiacs can now access fully-searchable editions of Mark Twain Day By Day on MarkTwainStudies.org, for free from anywhere with an internet connection.

"CMTS is eternally grateful to Mr. Fears for entrusting us with the fruit of his extraordinary labors," said Lemak. "We are also grateful to the late Dr. Thomas A. Tenney, Dr. Barbara Snedecor, Leslie Myrick, Dr. Susan K. Harris, and Nathanial Ball, all of whom donated time and labor essential to this project."

The addition of Mark Twain Day By Day to the website is the first of many resources that will be available on MarkTwainStudies.org as the Center continues to further develop the new site and fulfill its mission to serve a broadly-conceived community of Twain scholars.

About the Center for Mark Twain Studies

The Elmira College Center for Mark Twain Studies was founded in January 1983 with the gift of Quarry Farm to Elmira College by Jervis Langdon, the great-grand-nephew of Samuel Langhorne Clemens. The Center offers distinctive programs to foster and support Mark Twain scholarship and to strengthen the teaching of Mark Twain at all academic levels. The Center serves the Elmira College community and regional, national, and international students and scholars of Mark Twain.

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