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Watercolor illustration of raccoon and gopher imitating Lapham's logo Janus

Manifold Digital Services Spotlight: Lapham's Quarterly

This week brought Terence from one Manifold hub to another, New York City, to meet with Elizabeth Della Zazzera, Digital Producer, and Jaime Fuller, Web Editor, at Lapham’s Quarterly.

Not only did I have an awesome birthday last weekend, I'm now in NYC getting ready to meet with @ElizabethDZ and @laphamsquart to talk all things @ManifoldScholar. YES! And that's to say nothing of the impromptu team mtg. @jojokarlin and I had over dinner last night!

— Terence Smyre (@tremayning) October 9, 2019

The Lapham’s Quarterly team is looking to leverage the resource capabilities Manifold offers. “Lapham's Quarterly is excited to launch new longer-form online-native projects that replicate the breadth and depth we strive for in our magazine while taking advantage of the multi-media potential of Manifold.”

Jojo had already paved the way for Terence here in New York. Last year she led a Manifold session that Elizabeth was able to attend, so Terence began by picking up those threads and zooming in on how Lapham’s can specifically utilize Manifold alongside their existing web presence, from reimagining existing web content to adding new kinds of materials in the form of online-only mini-issues and resurfaced public domain works that include new introductory essays contextualizing those texts in new ways pertinent to the moment. Perhaps they'll even offer bonus content for subscribers.

Terence remarked,

I always find it extremely rewarding to see how different publishers with varied approaches and needs can look toward Manifold as a way to enhance their material and its reach. And as a regular reader it was thrilling to get a behind-the-scenes look at the process and an honor to meet everyone on the team, including an unexpected visit from founder Lewis Lapham himself! To say nothing about just having the chance to explore different ideas together with the group.

A great day at @laphamsquart yesterday. What a fantastic and welcoming team. Can't wait to get back at it this morning! Today's focus: different ways to format and structure content for the @ManifoldScholar reader.

— Terence Smyre (@tremayning) October 10, 2019

After two days, Terence concluded, "The work Lapham’s is about to embark on with the platform is going to push us in exciting ways." As a sampling, they closed out the sessions talking about inline iFrames, CSS Grid, and API integrations.

Lapham’s Quarterly, a magazine of history and ideas, has been bringing history to bear on contemporary issues since its founding in 2007 by former Harper's Magazine editor Lewis H. Lapham. Follow Lapham’s Quarterly on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

  • Miles traveled: 2,036

  • Meal highlights: Although much of Manifold’s New York team was out for the holidays, Jojo and Terence convened over Sabai Thai. Beyond discussing the successes of the trainings, they came to the conclusion that Manifold needs an extracurricular book club. What will they read??

  • Wild Forays: Terence ended up indoors more than he expected due to the rain and cold, but he did get out on Thursday morning for a true New York run.

    Jojo put together a great map for me, and I was able to head up 5th Ave. from my hotel and do the seven mile park circuit before coming back through Times Square. That was my first time in the park, and it was all I expected it to be. What a great running and biking community they have here. And it was exciting to see the RaCUNY. It was much more fleet of foot, considering its size, than I anticipated. Great run!