Curious Travellers: Digital Editions of Thomas Pennant's Tours of Scotland and Wales

Thomas Pennant's Tour in Scotland 1769 and Tour in Scotland and Voyage to the Western Isles 1772 (published 1771-76), and his Tours in Wales (1778-1783) played a foundational role in the birth of tourism in Scotland and Wales. Profoundly influencing contemporary writers and travellers, Pennant's Tours represented the first extensively illustrated documentation of Scotland and Wales, providing 'national descriptions' of the cultural, economic and environmental condition of both countries on the cusp of the modern era. Although reprinted over the years, these complex, multi-voiced texts have never been properly edited: they are a valuable resource for research across a wide range of disciplines.

Our searchable digital editions will allow readers to experience these works within their rich context of images, objects, buildings and places, connecting them to online collections in heritage institutions. A description of Dunvegan Castle on Skye, for example, would link to a watercolour made by Pennant's artist Moses Griffith on the 1772 tour; an account of a shell picked up on a beach in north Wales would link to its description in Pennant's British Zoology, and to the actual specimen from Pennant's collection at the National History Museum. The tour narrative does not always represent Pennant's eyewitness account, even when it appears to do so: much of his information was gleaned from local experts, often postdating the journey itself. Linking the Tours into his wide-ranging correspondence will allow critics, historians and archaeologists to get behind the published text to understand 'who saw what, and when'. Our expertise in Celtic languages will enable us to explore the nature of cultural translation from Scottish Gaelic or Welsh-speaking contributors. Digital editing will also make it easier to trace the development of the published tours through successive editions, as Pennant incorporated more and more material, sometimes verbatim, from enthusiastic readers. Descriptions of sites will be linked to (and used to enhance) the entries held by Coflein (Royal Commission for Ancient and Historic Monuments in Wales) and Canmore (Historic Environment Scotland), both of them widely-used public resources. We will also be working closely with the National Libraries of Wales and Scotland and the National Maritime Museum on a range of online exhibitions and projects.

Our partnership with the Natural History Museum will allow us to examine more closely how Pennant's work as a naturalist influenced and was influenced by his travels. His correspondence with another important natural historian, Gilbert White, will be the focus of an exhibition to be held at the Gilbert White House Museum in Selborne. Projects with schools and community groups in Flintshire and Skye, online exhibitions, digital maps, workshops and other events will all help to bring the hidden stories in these pioneering tours to life. What Pennant's writings can tell us about the complex legacies of eighteenth-century colonialism, slavery and the industrial revolution will be a key thread of our research, explored in various articles and in an exhibition at the Greenfield Valley Industrial Heritage Park near Pennant's home in Holywell, Flintshire.