Tom Scheinfeldt

Welcome to Found History! This is my professional homepage and blog. I'm also on Substack, where I write about history, technology, and digital culture.

AI
A Standard Disclaimer for AI-Curious Academics

I've noticed that when "pro-AI" academics—and by that I mean academics who don't reject AI out of hand for all purposes and are willing to experiment with the technology—write about AI, they generally feel the need to start with a disclaimer.

Tom Scheinfeldt
April 23, 2026 · 4 min read
AI
Seeing Old Science

Gemini’s ability to read handwritten archival documents has importance beyond the humanities

Tom Scheinfeldt
December 08, 2025 · 6 min read
AI
Generative Artificial Intelligence and Archives: Two Years On

Yesterday I gave a talk on AI and archives at the Colby/Bates/Bowdoin Special Collections and Archives Staff Retreat. Thanks to the staff of the George J. Mitchell Department of Archives and Special Collections and the Bowdoin Library, the amazing Schiller Center for Coastal Studies, where the event was

Tom Scheinfeldt
July 22, 2025 · 21 min read
Archives
Jim Bennett, Digital Humanist

I've just returned from London, where I joined a celebration at the Science Museum of the life of my D.Phil. thesis advisor, Jim Bennett. Jim was one of the world's foremost experts on scientific instruments, a innovative museum practitioner, an incredible teacher, and a kind

Tom Scheinfeldt
June 10, 2025 · 9 min read
Archives
Innovation as Habit: Practicing looking forward in a backward-looking business

The following are lightly edited speaker notes for a talk I first delivered in October 2024 at the Greater Hudson Heritage Network's annual meeting at Reid Castle on the campus of Manhattanville University in Purchase, New York and recently reprised for the Grant Professionals of the Lower Hudson

Tom Scheinfeldt
April 29, 2025 · 25 min read