“The M. Watt Espy Papers, execution files on more than 15,000 legal executions in the United States since 1608, are getting a digital makeover. Hailed by the New York Times as “America’s foremost death penalty historian,” M. Watt Espy (1933-2009) devoted more than 40 years to cataloging each legal execution since the founding of the Jamestown Colony. In 2008, Espy donated his collection to the University at Albany Libraries’ National Death Penalty Archive. The work is supported through a grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR), which selected UAlbany to receive a 2016 Digitizing Hidden Special Collections and Archives grant. As one of only 17 awards out of a total of 144 applications nationwide, the grant will create the Digital Archive of Executions in the United States, 1608-2002 from the M. Watt Espy Papers’ execution files on over 15,000 legal executions in the United States…” [via Mary Whisner]