Digital editions of correspondence are vital projects for the analysis of historical and cultural figures and events in addition to being popular training grounds for students. While the TEI Correspondence SIG has codified editorial standards and the web service correspSearch and the review journal RIDE have improved discoverability and methodological transparency, knowledge of the range of possibilities with source encoding and presentation remains difficult to acquire.

What is the current state of the digital scholarly edition of correspondence in the global DH community? There are significant differences in text encoding projects emerging from various geopolitical contexts. Greedy of time, funding, expertise, and labor, such projects have historically benefited from large teams, particularly in the historic "center" of digital humanities activity in North America and Europe. Given increased resource constraints and a diminished funding outlook, scholars in what we call the "South" but also increasingly in Northern contexts, have led a turn towards minimal computing frameworks. Are there lessons to be learned from examining projects emerging from the centers and margins of DH knowledge production that will improve our collective understanding of the planning and execution of these projects?

In this poster presentation, I report preliminary findings from a thematic and methodological analysis of a diverse corpus of correspondence editions. I will track variables including: the historical period and language(s) of the sources, disciplinary and theoretical frameworks, the DH methods used, the encoded entities, technical infrastructure (static or dynamic site software), as well as project longevity. By aggregating and analyzing these features, this study will establish a framework for identifying current methodological patterns and build awareness for the diversity of approaches possible within this community of practice.