University of Virginia Library

Noted Scholar And Editor

Reese Directs Newly-Formed Center

George H. Reese, noted scholar and
editor, and former assistant director of
research at Colonial Williamsburg, has
been appointed director of a new center
being established at the University for the
training of historical and literary editors.

Established with funds from the
National Endowment for the Humanities
and the William Stamps Farrish Fund, the
Center for Textual and Editorial Studies
in Humanistic Sources will emphasize
instruction for graduate students in
English and history. Opportunities will be
given for post-doctoral training and
practical laboratory work in documentary
editing.

Mr. Reese, who holds three degrees from the
University, also will be professor and chairman
of humanistic sources and associate editor of
"The Papers of George Washington," being
compiled and edited at the University.

As assistant director of research at Colonial
Williamsburg for three years, Mr. Reese
reviewed manuscripts for publication by
Colonial Williamsburg and organized and
administered two summer courses in colonial
Virginia history. He was also lecturer in history
as the College of William and Mary.

Mr. Reese's previous positions have included
head of the historical publications division of
the Virginia State Library, where he edited and
published official records of the colony of
Virginia and the Commonwealth, and agent of

the Virginia Committee of Colonial Records. In
this capacity he spent time in England and
France finding, abstracting and filming manuscript
materials on Virginia's early history.

He has also worked in the University Library
as assistant in the Virginia Room and as senior
librarian in charge of rare books. Following
World War II he taught English and French at
the University before resigning to join the
Foreign Service for six years.

As center director, Mr. Reese will co-ordinate
existing courses in textual criticism,
descriptive bibliography, analytical and textual
bibliography and historical methods as well as
plan and administer new courses offering
instruction in such areas as methods of dating
manuscript and printed material, annotation,
history of paper and ink, forgery detection,
computer concordancing and editorial ethics.

"It is important for students in any
discipline which uses the written or printed text
to have a concern for the integrity of the texts
upon which they will base their conclusions.
They must learn to apply critical tests for
authenticity, completeness and correctness and
should also be trained in the process of
transmitting the text so that it will be readily
available to people who want to use it," says
Mr. Reese.

Faculty for the new center will be drawn
from the University's teaching and editorial
staff as well as visiting specialists from libraries,
laboratories, museums and printing houses from
around the country. Students will have
opportunities for practical experience through
apprentice work with the editors of the
Washington papers and other major editorial
projects at various universities, at the National
Archives and Library of Congress and at
experimental laboratories and printing establishments.

"The center will train students in all aspects
of scholarly editing," says Mr. Reese. "It is
hoped that some will want to use these skills
not simply as part of their academic baggage
but as an end in themselves by becoming
professional scholarly editors."