The story of Asaph Perry

The story of Asaph Perry presented on this web site is an experiment in digital hypertext history. We designed the site to, in a sense, make Asaph's story not only knowable, but transparent.

The story is divided into six separate story lines. Each story line is comprised of multiple text blocks or lexia, which are stand-alone chunks of text as well as electronic links that join them. The links in lexia will take you to other parts of the story. This type of reading is non-linear, so if you prefer to read the story in linear fashion, you can start with the opening and follow the links highlighted next to the word "next" at the bottom of the lexia.

While reading the story you can also read about the development of the story by clicking on the "Writing" link on the left. Clicking the link titled "Learning" will allow you to read about how your students might learn about the past by engaging Asaph's story. The documents used to construct the story as well as an explanation of how these documents were used are available under the link title "Documenting."

An index of all the learning materials available on this site is available.

All the documents in the Asaph Perry Collection are also available.

The Asaph Perry Wiki (opens in new window) - Use this site to compose and edit new stories about Aspah Perry, his family, and world around him.

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Documents - SEE all the PERRY Documents

This story is based on our reading of a documentary record that consists of letters, correspondences, newspaper clips, business records, and memorabilia. The opening of our story cast Asaph as a typical person who lived and worked without extraordinary influence or achievement. We were much attuned to the scope of the collection when we decided to call Asaph, "typical." Nothing in the record of Asaph's life indicates that his influence extend too far beyond his immediate family and business relationships. Having said this, we do believe that Asaph's story has significant value. In fact, we would suggest that the documentary record can be a laboratory of sorts to understand the experience of a person whose life was like many others.