Andrew Prescott

Consumers, Creators or Commentators? Problems of Audience and Mission in the Digital Humanities

A 2008 article by Patrick Juola describes the digital humanities community as marginal to mainstream academic discussions and suggests that its work has little scholarly impact. At the same time, mainstream humanities scholars are using digital resources more and more, but these resources are chiefly produced by libraries and commercial organizations rather than digital humanities specialists. How can the digital humanities achieve its promise and transform humanities scholarship? It is suggested that the digital humanities community is too inward-looking and needs to reach out to wider constituencies. In particular, digital humanities specialists should urgently engage with the wider theoretical concerns that characterize humanities scholarship. Projects such as the Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674–1913 engage new audiences because they are grounded in a strong research vision.

I'd rather be a Librarian

In describing the Industrial Revolution, Sidney Pollard emphasized how some industries changed more quickly than others. Pollard described how a ‘visitor to the metalworking areas of Birmingham or Sheffield in the mid-nineteenth century would have found little to distinguish them superficially from the same industries a hundred years earlier. The men worked as independent contractors in their own or rented workshops using their own or hired equipment ... These industries ... were still waiting for their Industrial Revolution.’1 Yet the environment in which these men were working had been transformed. Their wheels were now powered by steam, and minor operations such as stamping and cutting had been speeded up by the use of machinery. The workshop might be lit by gas and have a direct water supply. Railways made distribution easier and cheaper while also giving access to a large labour market. Perhaps academic historians today are in a similar position to those craftsmen of the mid-nineteenth century. The way in which we access books and journal articles, our methods of retrieving materials from libraries and archives, and the way in which our books and journal articles are published have all changed radically over the past twentyfive years. Yet, as Tim Hitchcock emphasizes, the fundamental nature of the way in which we think, discuss and write about the past does not appear to have changed very much. I nowadays use a word processor to perform more quickly the tasks that I laboriously undertook thirty years ago with pen, paper, typewriter and correcting fluid, but although the use of a word processor has probably affected my literary style, it doesn’t fundamentally affect the way I build and express an historical argument. Am I like a Sheffield cutler of the nineteenth century, gratefully accepting the help of machines to make my life less arduous, but still awaiting my Industrial Revolution? Are conservatism and complacency preventing historians from seizing the chance to change the nature of historical discourse in a way that would build new audiences for history and create a stronger historical presence in public culture, as Tim Hitchcock powerfully argues? I have spent twenty-three years of my professional life as a curator or librarian, and eleven years as an academic (although, despite having trained as a historian, never in a

Bibliographic records as humanities big data

Most discussion hitherto of big data in the humanities has assumed that it is characterized by its heterogeneous nature. This paper examines the extent to which bibliographic records generated by libraries represent a more homogenous form of humanities big data, more closely related to the observational big data generated by scientific data. It is suggested from an examination of the British Library catalogue that, while superficially bibliographic records appear to be created according to consistent standards and form a more homogenous dataset, close examination reveals that bibliographical records often go through a marked process of historical development. However, the critical methods require to disaggregate such data are perhaps analogous to those used in some scientific disciplines.

Men and Women in the Guild Returns

In introducing his 1891 book, Two Thousand Years of Gild Life, the Revd Joseph Malet Lambert described medieval guilds as follows: ‘They were very largely the Chambers of Commerce, the Friendly Societies, the Trades Unions, the Freemasonry, and in some degree the Joint Stock Companies, of the times when the merchant lived in his warehouse, which was also his factory as well as his shop.’1 Lambert’s quotation vividly illustrates the way in which the medieval guilds have haunted the imagination of those interested in later fraternal societies. The fundamental principle of a voluntary association contributing to a common fund for objects of mutual, charitable and social benefit was first established on a large scale by the guilds. The guilds also elaborated many of the characteristic features of later fraternal organizations. The most important contribution of the guild to the wider development of fraternalism was the articulation of the concept that a voluntary organization could be a surrogate family, with fellow members becoming brothers and sisters, but the guilds also pioneered many other fundamental features of fraternal organizations, such as the members’ feast as a central social activity; the holding of regular business meetings of the membership; the election of officers to hold funds and property and to ensure the members’ compliance with a set of ordinances; the use of processions as the chief expression of the organization’s public face; the administration of oaths to new members and officers; and the use of special clothing to denote membership.

'Builders of the Temple of the New Civilisation': Annie Besant and Freemasonry

Annie Besant was one of the most remarkable women in British history. Besant felt increasingly dissatisfied with the materialist outlook of her friends such as Bradlaugh and Shaw. In 1889, as a result of reviewing Blavatsky?s The Secret Doctrine, Besant became profoundly interested in Blavatsky?s ideas and arranged to meet her. Besant?s introduction into Britain of Co-Masonry in 1902 marked the first stage of what was called a ceremonial revival which saw the establishment of a large number of ancillary organisations in which theosophists played the leading part. Besant?s interest in Co-Masonry, and indeed in Theosophy itself, can be seen as reflecting a thread in the British radical tradition which stretched back, through Bradlaugh and Carlile to Higgins and beyond him Paine. Besant as co-editor of the National Reformer would thus have been very familiar with Bradlaugh?s attempts to reform English Freemasonry.Keywords: Annie Besant; Blavatsky; Bradlaugh; British radical tradition; Co-Masonry; Freemasonry