蘑菇短视频

A faculty member in 蘑菇短视频鈥檚 Department of English Studies who has spent his career studying the works of literary notables Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle has created an endowed fund to ensure that an online collection of their letters and other materials will be preserved at his home campus in perpetuity.

Brent Kinser, 蘑菇短视频professor of English studies, has made gifts and pledges totaling $30,000 to establish the Kinser Endowment in Support of . The digital archive includes the letters and other works of both Carlyles, a married couple from Scotland who found themselves at the center of London literary life in the 19th century.

The commitment is designed to provide resources for the ongoing maintenance, hosting, preservation, technical infrastructure and other operational needs necessary for the continued availability and sustainability of The Carlyle Letters Online, also known as The CLO.

The gift also will support research, editorial, scholarly and publication activities that advance, expand, preserve or enhance the online archive, including transcription, annotation, indexing, digitization and related scholarly work.

Personnel supported through the endowment, who will be known as 鈥淜inser Fellows,鈥� could include student researchers, graduate assistants, interns and temporary staff. The fund also could assist with the cost of software, digital tools, equipment, subscriptions, travel, conferences, workshops and other activities that directly contribute to the mission of the collection.

Originally launched on a now-outdated digital platform, the collection has been housed over the years at a variety of hosts, including Stanford University, the University of South Carolina, Columbia University and, most recently, Texas A&M University.

The online resource found its new long-term home at WCU鈥檚 Hunter Library in March 2025. Heidi Buchanan, dean of Hunter Library, characterized The CLO as one of the most highly regarded and sustaining digital scholarship projects in the humanities.

鈥淚t鈥檚 rare to find an edited collection of this caliber, especially one that is freely available to students and researchers of 19th-century literature and history. Dr. Kinser has set up the endowment so that 蘑菇短视频student fellows and interns can gain hands-on experience with the challenging behind-the-scenes work of maintaining a digital archive,鈥� Buchanan said.

鈥淗unter Library is delighted to help Dr. Kinser bring The Carlyle Letters Online to his home institution. Campus-wide support and the skills of our library web developer, Grey Jenkins, made the move possible,鈥� she said. 鈥淭he Kinser Endowment will allow researchers to access The Carlyle Letters Online for years to come.鈥�

For Kinser, having the collection he has been working to preserve for the majority of his academic career now housed at 蘑菇短视频is a full-circle moment.

鈥淢y interest in the Carlyles began when I returned to university in 1996 after a career playing music in Orlando,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 attended Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois, where I grew up. Both my parents had attended and taught at ISU, so, thanks to them, I have spent my life around books and interesting people. One of these individuals was Rodger L. Tarr, a distinguished professor and prominent scholar of Victorian studies, in particular the work of Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle.鈥�

Kinser鈥檚 work with Tarr on the editing of a journal and other projects related to the Carlyles ignited the spark on a deep dive into their writings. The Scottish literary couple have been described by Duke University Press, one of the original chroniclers of their work, as 鈥渢wo of the Victorian world鈥檚 most accomplished, perceptive and unusual inhabitants.鈥�

Scholars at Duke and the University of Edinburgh had been collaborating on compiling since the 1950s, publishing 50 print volumes over the decades. The National Endowment for the Humanities began supporting the project in the 1990s. An NEH policy giving priority for funding to projects with a commitment to providing an open-access electronic version convinced scholars to begin the process of developing an online archive of the couple鈥檚 work.

That鈥檚 where Kinser rose to the challenge, beginning his work on the Carlyle letters digital project in 2001 as an editorial assistant when he was a doctoral student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,

鈥淎t a meeting of editors in early 2001, the then-director of Duke University Press announced that we needed someone to take on the challenge of overseeing the creation of the electronic version of the Duke-Edinburgh edition. I volunteered and have been responsible for managing all elements of the project ever since,鈥� Kinser said.

During his time as a doctoral student working on the project, he was compensated through  NEH grant funding, which he said gave him direct insight into the impact of endowments, scholarships and assistantships on students.

鈥淚 have spent much of my professional time and energy on managing the creation of The Carlyle Letters Online. And before saying anything, I need to extend profound thanks to the veritable army of colleagues, students, librarians and technologists who helped to build and maintain this site over the last 2.5 decades. Thanks to their help, I have been able to keep The CLO living as an open-access resource,鈥� Kinser said. 鈥淚 am establishing this fund to help students and to support the library in the interest of keeping the archive alive long after I have gone on to the Elysian Fields.鈥�

From the earliest days of the , Kinser and his colleagues knew that one of the greatest challenges of the project was to figure out a way to ensure its long-term sustainability. That鈥檚 where the endowment he is funding comes into play.

鈥漈he amount of work to be done, including potential development of the site, constitutes an infinite set,鈥� he said. 鈥淐ompensation for this work is the main purpose of the endowment. In addition, the kind of infrastructure on which the site is built will, I hope, serve to help Hunter Library in the construction of digital resources based upon our own collections.鈥�

Kinser said it was important to make a financial gift to the institution where he contributes daily through teaching, mentoring, conducting scholarly research and performing service activities 鈥� especially giving to an area that has meant so much to his career.

鈥淔aculty and staff already support this institution in astonishing ways, especially given some of the forces aligned against them. My extra-obligatory support of The Carlyle Letters Online is unique in that it is a concrete entity that I hope will live for a long time at WCU,鈥� he said.

Kinser expressed his appreciation to Hunter Library leadership for believing in the value of the online archive they have agreed to house.

鈥淚 am so very pleased that Heidi Buchanan and Chuck Thomas before her have committed to supporting this project that has proven to be so important to me professionally, and I feel that their support deserves mine. The overwhelming question for digital resources has always been, 鈥楬ow can they be sustained over a long period of time?鈥� This problem, of course, reflects the core mission of any archival endeavor, no matter the medium,鈥� he said.

鈥淚f the fund can support students and colleagues who work on The CLO at the same time it supports Hunter Library and the scholars around the world who use the site 鈥� for example, I recently helped a historian in Australia who was using the site for his new book project 鈥� then the fund will have achieved the goals I intend for it,鈥� Kinser said.

To make a gift to bolster the Kinser Endowment in Support of The Carlyle Letters Online, visit .