Finding a place: advancing digital methods to unlock the use of digitized book illustrations in cultural institutions
Lead Research Organisation:
CARDIFF UNIVERSITY
Department Name: Sch of English Communication and Philos
Abstract
Hidden between the covers of old books lies a remarkable visual record of the world and its inhabitants. Book illustrations span centuries and represent everywhere from Wales to Wyoming. Illustrations tell stories about the ideas and beliefs of those who created and read them across time and space. They are also material objects, which circulated around the globe and contributed to transnational world views, both shared and contested. These images give new meanings to natural and built environments and foreground complex intersections between people and place in their depiction of the local and foreign, the traveller, the indigenous, colonized, and displaced. Illustrations are especially significant for cultural institutions, which are often heavily invested in locations and communities. A notion of place is intricately interwoven in the contextualization of collections and the ways in which institutions define themselves and are experienced and engaged with.
Yet historical book illustrations are rarely used or analyzed in cultural institutions, even though digitized collections of illustrations exist in libraries and are accessible online. Several factors underlie this neglect: there is a limited awareness of the importance of illustrations, especially as many have been out of sight for so long and viewed as secondary to unique artistic objects; and the sheer scale and variety of digitized illustrations makes it challenging to find relevant images and to analyze them alongside each other. To put it simply, it is difficult to identify what illustrations are 'out there' and what can be done with them even if they are found. Prior to the digitization of illustrated books, the theorist, Gérard Genette, decided against research into illustrations because the field was an 'immense continent'.
It is this 'immense continent' that the project seeks to explore by bringing together scholars in illustration, museum studies, and computer science in UK and US cultural institutions with different requirements, audiences, and collections: Special Collections and Archives, Cardiff University, the American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming, Buffalo Bill Center of the West, Lambeth Palace Library, and the National Trust. A collaborative model informs our practice, with the research questions posed by curators moulding the development of digital methods that will reveal a forgotten world of images and uncover marginalized histories. Computational tools (e.g. crowdsourced tags, caption capture, geoparsing) will be used to identify a significant subset of book illustrations of places and people from a core digitized collection of illustrated books from the British Library, thus enriching its searchability and relevance. In response to the research questions of the cultural institutions, these illustrations will then be placed in dialogue with each other and with other images and objects in collections, challenging conventional categorizations and enabling hidden histories to be revealed. Computer vision, which has rarely been used in this context, will allow us to interrogate iconographic similarities and divergences, effectively charting the construction, transformation, and subversion of visual 'stereotypes' (a term that is itself bound up in the printing of illustrations). We will for the first time be able to identify changes in illustrations of buildings or landscapes, or trace affinities and differences across representations of people, a comparative analysis that is impossible in the material form of the book.
The histories uncovered on this project are significant in themselves and in the digital methods used to reveal them. Our objective is to create an environment and infrastructural legacy that will generate a deeper knowledge of the requirements and possibilities of digital methods for understanding illustrations, and to find a place for these images within cultural institutions.
Yet historical book illustrations are rarely used or analyzed in cultural institutions, even though digitized collections of illustrations exist in libraries and are accessible online. Several factors underlie this neglect: there is a limited awareness of the importance of illustrations, especially as many have been out of sight for so long and viewed as secondary to unique artistic objects; and the sheer scale and variety of digitized illustrations makes it challenging to find relevant images and to analyze them alongside each other. To put it simply, it is difficult to identify what illustrations are 'out there' and what can be done with them even if they are found. Prior to the digitization of illustrated books, the theorist, Gérard Genette, decided against research into illustrations because the field was an 'immense continent'.
It is this 'immense continent' that the project seeks to explore by bringing together scholars in illustration, museum studies, and computer science in UK and US cultural institutions with different requirements, audiences, and collections: Special Collections and Archives, Cardiff University, the American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming, Buffalo Bill Center of the West, Lambeth Palace Library, and the National Trust. A collaborative model informs our practice, with the research questions posed by curators moulding the development of digital methods that will reveal a forgotten world of images and uncover marginalized histories. Computational tools (e.g. crowdsourced tags, caption capture, geoparsing) will be used to identify a significant subset of book illustrations of places and people from a core digitized collection of illustrated books from the British Library, thus enriching its searchability and relevance. In response to the research questions of the cultural institutions, these illustrations will then be placed in dialogue with each other and with other images and objects in collections, challenging conventional categorizations and enabling hidden histories to be revealed. Computer vision, which has rarely been used in this context, will allow us to interrogate iconographic similarities and divergences, effectively charting the construction, transformation, and subversion of visual 'stereotypes' (a term that is itself bound up in the printing of illustrations). We will for the first time be able to identify changes in illustrations of buildings or landscapes, or trace affinities and differences across representations of people, a comparative analysis that is impossible in the material form of the book.
The histories uncovered on this project are significant in themselves and in the digital methods used to reveal them. Our objective is to create an environment and infrastructural legacy that will generate a deeper knowledge of the requirements and possibilities of digital methods for understanding illustrations, and to find a place for these images within cultural institutions.
Organisations
- CARDIFF UNIVERSITY (Lead Research Organisation)
- Lambeth Palace Library (Collaboration)
- National Trust (Collaboration)
- Cardiff University (Collaboration)
- Buffalo Bill Centre of the West (Collaboration)
- Special Collections - Library (Collaboration)
- National Trust (Project Partner)
- Buffalo Bill Center of the West (Project Partner)
Description | We have developed and are still developing software tools that will enable cultural institutions to find relevant images in large datasets of historical images. These are currently being trialled with our project partners |
Exploitation Route | We will release the tools at the end of the project. They could potentially be adapted by other sectors, although the most obvious are cultural institutions and libraries (as per the project brief). We hope to apply for further funding to fully exploit this |
Sectors | Culture Heritage Museums and Collections |
URL | https://findingaplace.org.uk/ |
Description | The tools are currently being used by our partner cultural institutions, with the aim of finding relevant material and setting up exhibitions |
First Year Of Impact | 2024 |
Impact Types | Cultural |
Description | Buffalo Bill Center of the West |
Organisation | Buffalo Bill Centre of the West |
Country | United States |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
PI Contribution | Working with collections to develop digital methods |
Collaborator Contribution | Working with collections to develop digital methods |
Impact | Working with collections to develop digital methods |
Start Year | 2022 |
Description | Collaboration with ARCCA |
Organisation | Cardiff University |
Department | Advanced Research Computing @ Cardiff (ARCCA) |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | In the Lost Visions project, we are adding a humanities big dataset to the largely scientific projects associated with ARCCA |
Collaborator Contribution | They have provided advice on the hosting of webservices, data storage techniques, data processing code development and selection of software packages. They also provide storage and infrastructure for the big dataset of images and the HPC resources for the processing of these. |
Impact | The storage and infrasatructure provided by ARCCA makes it possible to work on this large datasaet of over a million illustrations |
Start Year | 2014 |
Description | Lambeth Palace Library |
Organisation | Lambeth Palace Library |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
PI Contribution | Working with a curator at LPL to identify collections and curate an exhibition |
Collaborator Contribution | Working with a curator at LPL to identify collections and curate an exhibition |
Impact | Project is ongoing |
Start Year | 2022 |
Description | National Trust |
Organisation | National Trust |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
PI Contribution | Working with collections to construct our digital methods |
Collaborator Contribution | Working with collections to construct our digital methods |
Impact | Project is underway |
Start Year | 2022 |
Description | Special Collections and Archives, Cardiff University |
Organisation | Special Collections - Library |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Special Collections in Cardiff University is the digital hub for the project. The RA is based there |
Collaborator Contribution | Expertise and access to collections |
Impact | Project is still ongoing |
Start Year | 2022 |
Title | Caption capture tool |
Description | Tool for capturing the captions in datasets of historical book illustrations |
Type Of Technology | Software |
Year Produced | 2024 |
Impact | Currently being used by project partners prior to general release on github |
Description | Creation of a short film, released on YouTube |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Film has been used to publicise the project: in conferences and social media. It has resulted in the team being contacted by interested parties |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://findingaplace.org.uk/?page_id=12 |