About
This is the blog for the WHIRL archive project. WHIRL or the Western Hemisphere Indigenous Reference Library is an attempt to comprehensively preserve the many writing/graphical notation systems that were created by the indigenous people of the western hemisphere. The primary goal is to better facilitate research on the literary traditions of the many diverse nations/cultures indigenous to the western hemisphere.The digital archive will include high-resolution images, descriptions, and historical context for each writing system and included manuscript. Additionally, this blog will serve as place to present information to further explore these various systems, the cultures that created them, and their history
Acknowledgements
The WHIRL project has many inspirations in large part it was inspired by the work of Gordon Brotherston specifically his 1979 book "Image of New World" and its follow up in 1993 "Books of The Fourth World" and even though both works are dated in many ways I would still highly recommend them. This project was also inspired by a wonderful video essay by Twin Rabbits Plains Sign & the Myth of Indigenous Illiteracy
This project would also have not been possible without help from the following people: Dr. James Doyle, Dr. Jacob Holland-Lulewicz, Kyle Marini, John Russell, Manuel Medrano, Dr. Laura Marshall, Dr. Sabine Hyland, Dr. David Mora Marín, Dr. Reniel Rodríguez Ramos, Dr. Christopher Heaney, Dr. Christophe Helmke, Dr. Javier Urcid, Dakota Wind, Dr. Wendy Makoons Geniusz, Dr. Elizabeth Hill Boone, and the wonderful staff at the Penn State Univerity Library.
I would also like to thank Pedro Rafael Mena who I commissioned to make the illustrations for this project. You can find more of his wondeful artwork here.
WHIRL also heavily draws on the efforts of other related projects and would not have been possible without the work of The Mapa Project, The Khipu Field Guide, and The Open Khipu Repository.
Funding for this project was provided by the Erickson Discovery Grant from Penn State University.
Contact
If you have any questions, comments, or concerns please send an email to whirlarchivist@protonmail.com