Over the course of a year, the authors of this article engaged in endeavors that wedded digital humanities with archival and undergraduate research in a number of different ways. Together, a history faculty member and a small team of undergraduate research assistants created a digital archive housed by the ePortfolio system used by our university. Then, students enrolled in an upper level history course on Latin America to 1800 utilized the Cuba in the Classroom Digital Archive for a series of assignments, including research papers focused on Cuba and the wider Iberian Atlantic World. This article discusses the creation and the use of this digital archive from the perspective of a faculty member, who specializes in the history of the early modern Spanish World, and those of undergraduate students. The student authors of this essay include members of the digital team, who aided in the development of the website's content, and students who piloted the digital archive as a resource for assignments and research papers. We make the case for using digital tools to broaden access to materials and to help students understand historical research methodologies. These linked projects confirm the high-impact potential of undergraduate research and of digital humanities. In the process, we discuss some of the challenges and rewards of doing digital history and of facultystudent collaboration.
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