Sacred Harp Minutes Research Data

Querying the Past through the Minutes of Sacred Harp Singings, 1900–Present

Team

Sponsoring Organizations

This project is a partnership between the Sacred Harp Publishing Company (SHPC), the Sacred Harp Musical Heritage Association (SHMHA), and Emory University. The University of West Georgia’s Annie Belle Weaver Special Collections at the Ingram Library and the Sacred Harp Museum at SHPC loaned volumes from their collections to Emory for digitization. Emory University’s Pitts Theology Library, Emory Center for Digital Scholarship (ECDS), and Emory Libraries contributed technical expertise and digitized pre-1995 minutes volumes. ECDS supports the project’s file-sharing and digitization and OCR infrastructure. Emory’s Atlanta Interdisciplinary AI Network provided funding for proof of concept OCR correction and AI experimentation.

Project Staff

  • Mark T. Godfrey, technical lead
  • Jesse P. Karlsberg, PhD, project director

Advisory Board

  • Judy Caudle, SHMHA
  • Will Fitzgerald, PhD, GitHub (retired)
  • Nathan K. Rees, PhD, University of West Georgia and Sacred Harp Museum
  • Ian Quinn, PhD, Yale University
  • Chris Thorman, SHMHA
  • Brandon Wason, PhD, Emory University (Pitts)

Volunteers

Laura Akerman, Melanie Albrecht, Mairye Bates, Kevin Beirne, John Berendzen, Adam Berey, Stacey Berkheimer, Justin Bowen, Marie Brandis, Morgan Bunch, Steve Cackley, Judy Caudle, Leigh Cooper, Kate Coxon, Emily Crespo, Clarisa Fetrow, Ann Riley Gray, Erin Fulton, Carol Huang, Sarah Huckaby, Stephen Hutcheson, Jesse P. Karlsberg, Robert Kelley, Nancy Mandel, Dorothea Maynard, Marian Mitchell, Angela Myers, Michael Ruhl, Dawn Stanford, Melissa Stephenson, Mary Amelia Taylor, Tivey, Judy Van Duzer, and Micah John Walter.

Past Project Staff

  • Margy Adams, community manager (2022–24)
  • Peace Cyebukayire, undergraduate AI associate (2025)
  • Will Fitzgerald, PhD, technical lead (2021–22)
  • Erin Fulton, minutes transcription associate (2025–26)
  • Sara Kaplan, volunteer coordinator (2021–22)
  • Brian Kim, undergraduate AI associate (2025)
  • Aman Shaik, undergraduate AI associate (2025)
  • Brian Tekadtuera, undergraduate AI associate (2025)

Donors and Loaners of Minutes from Private Collections

  • Roma Rice
  • Margaret Keeton
  • Buell Cobb (1944–2025)
  • Judy Greene
  • Jim W. Latimer
  • Jeannette DePoy
  • David Warren Steel

Acknowledgments

  • Allen Tullos, Wayne Morse Jr. (retired), Chase Lovellette, Michael Page, Stephanie Bryan (ECDS)
  • Lars Meyer, Kyle Fenton, Bonnie Jean Woolger (Emory Libraries Digitization Program)
  • M. Patrick Graham (retired), Richard “Bo” Manly Adams Jr., Brandon Wason (Pitts Theology Library)
  • Shanee’ Murrain (now of the Council on Library and Information Resources), Blynne Olivieri Parker (Annie Belle Weaver Special Collections, University of West Georgia)
  • Myrna Layton (Brigham Young University Library)
  • Tommy Ottolin (now of Universal Music Group), Opata Mate-Kole (now of Ardent Mentoring) (Emory Center for AI Learning)
  • Juncheng Yang (Harvard University, Engineering and Applied Sciences)
  • Sara Brumfield, Ben Brumfield (Brumfield Labs)
  • Hannah Alpert-Abrams (Sidra Collaborative)
  • Joel Chan (Wish)
  • Lauren Klein (Atlanta Interdisciplinary AI Network)
  • David Ivey, Judy Caudle, Chris Thorman (SHMHA)
  • Karen Rollins, John Plunkett, Michael Hinton (deceased) (SHPC)