Archives and Writing Lives

Archives and Writing Lives considers how we access and analyse handwritten historical documents in the digital age and the next steps for the future. The way we use archival sources - which include letters, inventories, legal documents, receipts, wage lists and financial accounts - has undergone profound change in recent decades as a result of the web and digitisation. Yet many challenges remain. Vast areas of the archive, in fact most historical documents, remain unread and unanalysed. Furthermore, in certain respects, the web could be said simply to replicate certain older research paradigms, rather than transform them. This project asks where should our priorities lie next? How do we bring to life lesser-known and never-read archival materials and shed light on their traces of past lives? Archives and Writing Lives focuses its spotlight on Early Modern handwritten archival sources, which are an especially challenging category of archival material, being both voluminous in quantity and notoriously difficult to decipher and interpret. This project will argue forcefully for and will illustrate the benefits of: (1) collaborative and inter-disciplinary models of working in order to progress knowledge; (2) the potential of digital scholarship to transform research and to communicate research findings widely; (3) the particular gains to be made through analysis of sources for women's lives, which include fresh insights and more accurate versions of the broader historical narrative. The findings of this project will have the potential to shape the agenda for how archives are used and interpreted in the future. The project will develop a suite of open-access research publications alongside and linked to innovative digital outputs, which will stand as reference points within the field for many years to come.

Archives and Writing Lives is organised around three Research Themes that address the question that runs as a thread throughout: how does digital scholarship change archival research? For Research Theme 1, Bess of Hardwick's Financial Accounts, 1548-1601, the PI will publish an interactive web-edition, freely and openly available online, of previously unpublished Chatsworth House and Hardwick Hall financial accounts that present in spectacular and compelling detail the everyday comings and goings of a grand Elizabethan household. The core data from the web-edition will simultaneously be shared with and hosted by the EMMO Project (Folger Shakespeare Library) and MEDEA Project to develop methods for digital editing of historical financial accounts across international research projects. For Research Theme 2, The Letters and Documents of Mary, Queen of Scots, 1550-87, the PI will publish, freely and opening online, a catalogue of c.800 letters and documents to and from Mary, Queen of Scots. Unedited since 1844, the Scottish Queen's letters offer one of the most powerful cases for shifting the focus of analysis back to the archival materials in order to produce more realistic and accurate portrayals of the historical and political situation. The PI will collaborate with and share data with the WEMLO and EMLO Projects (Bodleian Library, Oxford) to host the letter catalogue and develop methods for modelling and sharing metadata. For Research Theme 3, Early Modern Archives and Digital Transformations, the PI will lead a series of events, workshops and seminars, and edit a distinct section of a major co-edited book on Archives, that will bring together academic researchers, archive and library professionals, digital developers, institutional policy-makers, third sector personnel, performers and the public. Through these events, the PI will create opportunities for a range of potential archive users to engage with questions about the practical challenges, as well as the interests and opportunities, presented today by early modern archival sources.

1] Professional or practitioner groups - library and archive professionals:
The process of sharing data with EMLO and EMMO, at the Bodleian Library and the Folger Shakespeare Library, will create change through direct engagement with archivists and librarians at these institutions. Through engagement with these major world-class research libraries in the UK and USA, this project will contribute to how archival documents are represented and accessed at these libraries and archives. As this will be one of the first times the Folger EMMO project has hosted encoded transcripts from another institution, this project will be a step towards the development of EMMO as a software platform for researchers world-wide. As well as the PI's own networks, the Project's collaborators and Advisory Board each present opportunities (i.e. through their own contacts) to enhance the scope and range of the networks the can be developed and connections created by this project with archive and library professionals.

2] Third sector - staff and volunteers at historic properties:
The PI will devise and run focus-group meetings with third sector staff and volunteers at historic properties in England and Scotland, for example, Hardwick Hall (National Trust) and Stirling Castle (Historic Scotland). At these focus-groups there will be discussion of supplied reproductions of documents and transcripts (i.e. extracts from the letters and financial accounts) and how staff and volunteers might use such materials in their roles at the properties. The purpose of these discussions will be to gather feedback that will inform the development of the digital outputs, such as would engage these individuals and this potential user group. Follow-up activities will capture information about whether change has occurred, i.e. change in the practice of staff and volunteers, such as how they present information at the properties and their interactions with the visiting public. As well as the PI's own networks, the University of Glasgow Arts Lab team facilitates connections and contacts within the heritage and tourism sector of relevance to developing this pathway to impact.

3] Creative and performing arts - Cottier Chamber Project:
The PI will bring Archives and Writing Lives to the Spoken Word strand of the Cottier Chamber Project music festival in June 2018. This music festival has a loyal and expanding audience-base and its own established media, web and social-media presence (www.cottierchamberproject.com @CottierChamber @CottierDance). The Spoken Word strand of the festival was established by the PI (with collaborators) in 2016, conceived as a week-long series of events that bring together, in a performance setting, University of Glasgow College of Arts researchers with musicians. In 2018, if funded by the AHRC, the theme of the Spoken Word series will be Letters and will feature readings and discussions of research findings from historical letters linked to performances of live music and dance. As an established initiative, supported by a University of Glasgow KE Fund award in 2016, the PI has experience of capturing information about Public Engagement, Impact and Knowledge Exchange resulting from these events and has received support from the University of Glasgow KE&I Office and PE staff.

4] The media:
The PI will send press releases to advertise and promote the project and its activities, e.g. on the launch of digital outputs and to advertise events. Targeted media will be: national media in Scotland and the UK; local media at sites that feature in the Scottish Queen's letters; history publications (e.g. BBC History Magazine, History Today); related bodies (e.g. The National Archives blog, National Library of Scotland newsletter). The University of Glasgow's Communications and Public Affairs Office will provide support in the development of press releases and media contacts.