Ruth Byrne, Lancaster

Institute of Historical Research

The History of Learning Digital History, c. 1980-2017

Adam Crymble

(University of Hertfordshire)

Digital History seminar series

Institute of Historical Research

The History of Learning Digital History, c. 1980-2017

Adam Crymble

(University of Hertfordshire)

Digital History seminar series

Institute of Historical Research

What do we know about the ODNB? Elite Lives at Scale

Christopher N. Warren

(Carnegie Mellon University)

On its release in 2004, the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography was called ‘the greatest book ever,’ ‘a more enthralling read than all the novels ever entered for the Booker Prize put together.’ The Daily Mail, where these giddy pronouncements appeared, is not known for understatement, but more cautious academic researchers have long held the ODNB in similarly high esteem—even though the enormous scope of ODNB, which is the work of roughly 10,000 scholars, runs to 60 volumes in print, and is made up of more than 62 million words, quickly defeats the capacities of those most eager to praise it. Stephen Collini, writing in the London Review of Books, found himself ‘experiencing a rare, and wholly unironic, feeling that mixes pride and humility with a dash of wonder’ when he considered ‘generations to come making use of this vast consolidation of scholarly accuracy for purposes of their own which may be barely imaginable to us now.’ This talk will argue, first, that the ODNB offers fresh perspective on the broadest changes in elite British culture, and second, that such perspective is uniquely—perhaps even exclusively—available by way of computational methods.

Digital History seminar series

Institute of Historical Research

What do we know about the ODNB? Elite Lives at Scale

Christopher N. Warren

(Carnegie Mellon University)

On its release in 2004, the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography was called ‘the greatest book ever,’ ‘a more enthralling read than all the novels ever entered for the Booker Prize put together.’ The Daily Mail, where these giddy pronouncements appeared, is not known for understatement, but more cautious academic researchers have long held the ODNB in similarly high esteem—even though the enormous scope of ODNB, which is the work of roughly 10,000 scholars, runs to 60 volumes in print, and is made up of more than 62 million words, quickly defeats the capacities of those most eager to praise it. Stephen Collini, writing in the London Review of Books, found himself ‘experiencing a rare, and wholly unironic, feeling that mixes pride and humility with a dash of wonder’ when he considered ‘generations to come making use of this vast consolidation of scholarly accuracy for purposes of their own which may be barely imaginable to us now.’ This talk will argue, first, that the ODNB offers fresh perspective on the broadest changes in elite British culture, and second, that such perspective is uniquely—perhaps even exclusively—available by way of computational methods.

Digital History seminar series

Institute of Historical Research

What do we know about the ODNB? Elite Lives at Scale

Christopher N. Warren

(Carnegie Mellon University)

On its release in 2004, the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography was called ‘the greatest book ever,’ ‘a more enthralling read than all the novels ever entered for the Booker Prize put together.’ The Daily Mail, where these giddy pronouncements appeared, is not known for understatement, but more cautious academic researchers have long held the ODNB in similarly high esteem—even though the enormous scope of ODNB, which is the work of roughly 10,000 scholars, runs to 60 volumes in print, and is made up of more than 62 million words, quickly defeats the capacities of those most eager to praise it. Stephen Collini, writing in the London Review of Books, found himself ‘experiencing a rare, and wholly unironic, feeling that mixes pride and humility with a dash of wonder’ when he considered ‘generations to come making use of this vast consolidation of scholarly accuracy for purposes of their own which may be barely imaginable to us now.’ This talk will argue, first, that the ODNB offers fresh perspective on the broadest changes in elite British culture, and second, that such perspective is uniquely—perhaps even exclusively—available by way of computational methods.

Digital History seminar series

Institute of Historical Research

Hearing voices: Sound, space and experience at the Old Bailey

Tim Hitchcock

(University of Sussex)

Combining 3D modelling of the Old Bailey courtroom c.1800 with textual analysis of the recorded speech of defendants tried there, this paper explores how we might reconstruct the ‘voices’ of the dead, and locate them in an understandable material context. By combining statistical analysis of one of the most extensive verbatim records we possess of speech acts prior to the twentieth century – The Old Bailey Proceedings – with historical reconstructions derived from architectural drawings, contemporary images and archival research, this papers seeks to both illustrate an innovative methodological approach, and at the same time, revise our understanding of the evolution of both the trial process, and the experience of being tried.

Digital History seminar series

Institute of Historical Research

Hearing voices: Sound, space and experience at the Old Bailey

Tim Hitchcock

(University of Sussex)

Combining 3D modelling of the Old Bailey courtroom c.1800 with textual analysis of the recorded speech of defendants tried there, this paper explores how we might reconstruct the ‘voices’ of the dead, and locate them in an understandable material context. By combining statistical analysis of one of the most extensive verbatim records we possess of speech acts prior to the twentieth century – The Old Bailey Proceedings – with historical reconstructions derived from architectural drawings, contemporary images and archival research, this papers seeks to both illustrate an innovative methodological approach, and at the same time, revise our understanding of the evolution of both the trial process, and the experience of being tried.

Digital History seminar series

Institute of Historical Research

Hearing voices: Sound, space and experience at the Old Bailey

Tim Hitchcock

(University of Sussex)

Combining 3D modelling of the Old Bailey courtroom c.1800 with textual analysis of the recorded speech of defendants tried there, this paper explores how we might reconstruct the ‘voices’ of the dead, and locate them in an understandable material context. By combining statistical analysis of one of the most extensive verbatim records we possess of speech acts prior to the twentieth century – The Old Bailey Proceedings – with historical reconstructions derived from architectural drawings, contemporary images and archival research, this papers seeks to both illustrate an innovative methodological approach, and at the same time, revise our understanding of the evolution of both the trial process, and the experience of being tried.

Digital History seminar series

Institute of Historical Research

Documenting British slave-owners in the Caribbean c.1763 - c.1860

Keith McClelland

(University College London)

Digital History seminar series