The Congruence Engine: Digital Tools for New Collections-Based Industrial Histories
Lead Research Organisation:
Science Museum Group
Department Name: Science Museum Research
Abstract
The capacity to make strong connections between historical objects and sources lies at the heart of this project as it does in the everyday museum and historical practices that it is designed to support. Curators creating displays combine artefacts, images, audio-visual materials and histories. Family and local historians connect records of ancestors and localities to establish their genealogy or to understand the past of where they live. Academic historians patiently and critically connect a diverse range of archive sources with existing literature to tell new stories about the past. All rely on connecting different fragments of the past as they create the tapestries of narrative that constitute our local and national histories. The Congruence Engine will create the prototype of a digital toolbox for everyone fascinated by the past to connect an unprecedented range of items from the nation's collection to tell the stories about our industrial past that they want to tell. Until now, we have become acclimatised to a world of research where it has only been possible to work with a selection of the potentially relevant historical source material for any historical investigation we want to undertake. And now, in our information society, we expect to go to a search engine and find a record of anything. But so often such searches disappoint, and for two main reasons. First because the tyranny of the free-text search where ranked results lists favour the results of previous searches, and cannot be guaranteed to include the full set of what is relevant to the search. The second reason is that the records of so very many of our heritage collections are thin, inconsistent, or kept in institutional siloes hidden from outside access. This project explicitly works with these collections that are generally represented by weak data. In place of the two-dimensional ranked list of search engines, we aim, with 'The Congruence Engine', to model a world in which users will be able to explore data neighbourhoods (technically 'knowledge graphs') where a great diversity of information about heritage items that are deeply relevant to their investigations will be readily to hand - museum objects, archive documents, pictures, films, buildings, and the records of previous investigations and relevant activity.
Building on the successful experimentation of 'Heritage Connector' (the Science Museum's TaNC foundation project), this major project will develop a repertoire of prototype discovery tools to access the industrial and related collections brought into the study from our investigating and collaborating organisations and partners. To achieve this breakthrough in collections accessibility, it will bring together in collaboration a unique combination of skills and interests. Here, digital researchers will work with professional and community historians and curators to address real-world historical investigations of Britain's industrial past. Through 27 months of iterative exploration of three industrial sectors - textiles, energy and communications - the digital researchers will work with the historians and curators, tuning the software to make it responsive to user needs. They will responsively use computational and artificial intelligence techniques - including machine learning and natural language processing (specifically, eg, named entity recognition) and a suite of bespoke entity-linking routines - to create and refine datasets, provide routes between records and digital objects such as scans and photographs, and create the tools by which the participants - who will not need to be digital experts - will be able to enjoy and employ the sources that are opened to them in the construction of narratives. These narratives will be expressed in the project's mobile digital exhibition space, on its website and a variety of conventional popular and academic outputs. Software will be made available via GitHub; we will produce 'how to' guides.
Building on the successful experimentation of 'Heritage Connector' (the Science Museum's TaNC foundation project), this major project will develop a repertoire of prototype discovery tools to access the industrial and related collections brought into the study from our investigating and collaborating organisations and partners. To achieve this breakthrough in collections accessibility, it will bring together in collaboration a unique combination of skills and interests. Here, digital researchers will work with professional and community historians and curators to address real-world historical investigations of Britain's industrial past. Through 27 months of iterative exploration of three industrial sectors - textiles, energy and communications - the digital researchers will work with the historians and curators, tuning the software to make it responsive to user needs. They will responsively use computational and artificial intelligence techniques - including machine learning and natural language processing (specifically, eg, named entity recognition) and a suite of bespoke entity-linking routines - to create and refine datasets, provide routes between records and digital objects such as scans and photographs, and create the tools by which the participants - who will not need to be digital experts - will be able to enjoy and employ the sources that are opened to them in the construction of narratives. These narratives will be expressed in the project's mobile digital exhibition space, on its website and a variety of conventional popular and academic outputs. Software will be made available via GitHub; we will produce 'how to' guides.
Organisations
- Science Museum Group (Lead Research Organisation)
- NATIONAL MUSEUMS SCOTLAND (Collaboration)
- Victoria and Albert Museum (Collaboration)
- National Museum Wales (Collaboration, Project Partner)
- National Museums Northern Ireland (Collaboration, Project Partner)
- BT Group (Collaboration)
- British Film Institute (BFI) (Collaboration)
- The National Archives (Collaboration)
- Historic England (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL (Collaboration)
- University College London (Collaboration)
- BIRMINGHAM MUSEUMS TRUST (Collaboration)
- University of London (Collaboration)
- Wikimedia UK (Collaboration)
- Manchester Digital Laboratory (Collaboration)
- Discovery Musuem (Collaboration)
- Bradford Museums and Galleries (Collaboration)
- National Trust (Collaboration)
- History of Science Society (Collaboration, Project Partner)
- Society for the History of Technology (SHOT) (Collaboration)
- British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) (Collaboration)
- Whipple Museum of the History of Science (Project Partner)
- Victoria and Albert Museum (Project Partner)
- BT Archives (Project Partner)
- National Trust (Project Partner)
- Birmingham Museums Trust (Project Partner)
- National Archives (Project Partner)
- Society for the History of Technology (Project Partner)
- Saltaire World Heritage Education Assoc (Project Partner)
- British Broadcasting Corporation (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
- Grace's Guide to Industrial History (Project Partner)
Publications
Cocroft W
(2023)
Connecting places and collections
in Science Museum Group Journal
Wilson D
(2023)
Working at scale: what do computational methods mean for research using cases, models and collections?
in Science Museum Group Journal
Winters J
(2023)
The role of digital humanities in an interdisciplinary research project
in Science Museum Group Journal
Agar J
(2023)
History of communications and the Congruence Engine: early thoughts and possibilities
in Science Museum Group Journal
Calow A
(2023)
The future: reflections on emerging machine-learning methods for digital heritage
in Science Museum Group Journal
Gooday G
(2023)
Energising connections in museum collections
in Science Museum Group Journal
Boon T
(2023)
Origins and ambitions of the Congruence Engine project
in Science Museum Group Journal
Little K
(2023)
‘South Kensington is practically as far away as Paris or Munich’: the making of industrial collections in Edinburgh, Newcastle and Birmingham
in Science Museum Group Journal
Description | Congruence Engine Participating Organisation |
Organisation | BT Group |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | Invitation to take part in Congruence Engine Research Project |
Collaborator Contribution | Data providing project parnter. |
Impact | N/A |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | Congruence Engine Participating Organisation |
Organisation | Birmingham Museums Trust |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
PI Contribution | Invitation to take part in Congruence Engine Research Project |
Collaborator Contribution | Data providing project partner invited to take part in investigations. |
Impact | N/A |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | Congruence Engine Participating Organisation |
Organisation | British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | Invitation to take part in Congruence Engine Research Project |
Collaborator Contribution | Data providing partner for the project. |
Impact | N/A |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | Congruence Engine Participating Organisation |
Organisation | British Film Institute (BFI) |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
PI Contribution | Invited to be Co-Investigator for the project. |
Collaborator Contribution | Patrick Russell is Co-Investigator for the project, alongside colleagues Ros Cranston and Steven Foxton, they are working across all three main investigation themes for the project. The BFI is also a data providing partner. |
Impact | N/A |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | Congruence Engine Participating Organisation |
Organisation | Historic England |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | Invited to be Co-Investigator on the project. |
Collaborator Contribution | Wayne Cocroft, now Matthew Bristow, is the Co-Investigator for Historic England. They are also a data providing partner. |
Impact | N/A |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | Congruence Engine Participating Organisation |
Organisation | History of Science Society |
Country | United States |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
PI Contribution | Invitation to take part in Congruence Engine Research Project |
Collaborator Contribution | Data providing project partner |
Impact | N/A |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | Congruence Engine Participating Organisation |
Organisation | Manchester Digital Laboratory |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
PI Contribution | Invitation to take part in Congruence Engine Research Project |
Collaborator Contribution | Non-IRO Co-Investigator-like role, providing assistance with data side of investigations and use of digital tools. |
Impact | N/A |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | Congruence Engine Participating Organisation |
Organisation | National Museum Wales |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | Invitation to take part in Congruence Engine Research Project |
Collaborator Contribution | Data providing partner invited to take part in investigations. |
Impact | N/A |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | Congruence Engine Participating Organisation |
Organisation | National Museums Northern Ireland |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Invitation to take part in Congruence Engine Research Project |
Collaborator Contribution | Data providing partner for the project invited to take part in investigations. |
Impact | N/A |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | Congruence Engine Participating Organisation |
Organisation | National Museums Scotland |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | Invited to be Co-Investigator on the project. |
Collaborator Contribution | Geoff Belknap is Co-Investigator for the project, helping with the Communications theme. |
Impact | N/A |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | Congruence Engine Participating Organisation |
Organisation | National Trust |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
PI Contribution | Invitation to take part in Congruence Engine Research Project |
Collaborator Contribution | Data providing project partner. |
Impact | N/A |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | Congruence Engine Participating Organisation |
Organisation | Society for the History of Technology (SHOT) |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Invitation to take part in Congruence Engine Research Project |
Collaborator Contribution | Data providing project partner. |
Impact | N/A |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | Congruence Engine Participating Organisation |
Organisation | The National Archives |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | Invitation to take part in Congruence Engine Research Project |
Collaborator Contribution | Data providing project partner. |
Impact | N/A |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | Congruence Engine Participating Organisation |
Organisation | University College London |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Invited to be Co-Investigator on the project. |
Collaborator Contribution | Jon Agar is a Co-Investigator and historian for the communications investigation strand. |
Impact | N/A |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | Congruence Engine Participating Organisation |
Organisation | University of Leeds |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Invitation to take part in Congruence Engine Research Project. |
Collaborator Contribution | Helen Graham, Simon Popple and Graeme Gooday have are Co-Investigators for this project. |
Impact | N/A |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | Congruence Engine Participating Organisation |
Organisation | University of Liverpool |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Invited to be Co-Investigator on the project. |
Collaborator Contribution | William Ashworth is Co-Investigator and historian for the textiles strand of the investigation. |
Impact | N/A |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | Congruence Engine Participating Organisation |
Organisation | University of London |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Invited to take part in the Congruence Engine project. |
Collaborator Contribution | Jane Winters, is Co-Investigator and working on the Digital Humanities work package. |
Impact | N/A |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | Congruence Engine Participating Organisation |
Organisation | Victoria and Albert Museum |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | Invitation to take part in Congruence Engine Research Project |
Collaborator Contribution | Data providing partner for the project. |
Impact | N/A |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | Congruence Engine Participating Organisation |
Organisation | Wikimedia UK |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
PI Contribution | Invitation to take part in Congruence Engine Research Project |
Collaborator Contribution | Data providing partner invited to take part in investigations. |
Impact | N/A |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | Congruence Engine Participating Organisations |
Organisation | Bradford Museums and Galleries |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | Invitation to take part in Congruence Engine Research Project |
Collaborator Contribution | Non-IRO Co-Investigator-like role |
Impact | N/A |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | Congruence Engine Participating Organisations |
Organisation | Discovery Musuem |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
PI Contribution | Inviting collaboration in Congruence Engine reserach project |
Collaborator Contribution | Non-IROs acting in quasi Co-Investigator mode |
Impact | Paper co-written by Kylea Little listed in project publications |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | Congruence Engine Opening Conference |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | 50 Co-Is and Project Partners visited Saltaire and Lister Mills, and Bradford Industrial museums for a two day conference, including partner presentations, discussions and institutional visits to get to know each other and begin to define the work and investigation areas of the Congruence Engine project. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Congruence Engine Panel and Workshop at Science Museum Group Research Conference (Manchester) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Congruence Engine project partners and Co-Investigators presented on a textiles history panel at the Science Museum Group's annual research conference, in Manchester on the first day. One the second day other project partners took part in a workshop on visual history in partnership with the Science Museum Group Journal. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://www.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/projects/type/research/ |
Description | Congruence Engine Project Blog |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | This blog is a space for sharing and reading into how the project is developing, what project partners are thinking about and working on. It is intended to be a place for discussion, not just exposition, so there are pieces with more than one voice; people in discussion about what emerges, and what matters as investigations unfold. It aims to expose the dialogues at the heart of what we're doing to develop a common understanding and language - between curators, historians and digital people - about collections and digital tools that is necessary to deliver our project aims. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://ceblog.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/ |
Description | Congruence Engine Year One Newsletter |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | A newsletter released at the end of the first year of the Congruence Engine project giving an overview of the development of the project, sent out to all project partners and affiliated organisations. The newsletter provides work package updates, updates on the themed investigations, and reports from Co-Investigators and links to project resources. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://sway.office.com/OOVcGRS6LXXmNQho?ref=email |
Description | Panel discussion contribution on CE to 'Industrial Labour and Cultural Engagement in the Long 19th Century' conference of the Piston, Press and Pen AHRC project |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | Dr Tim Boon presented on a panel at Piston, Pen and Press, to an audience of academics (historians of 19th literature and history) on the Congruence Engine project and the current work in progress. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Project website for Congruence Engine |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | A website informing visitors about the Congruence Engine project, and its position as one of five 'Discovery Projects' funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council under the 'Towards a National Collection' funding stream. The page describes project aims, outputs, partners, co-investigators, and any calls for participation. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://www.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/project/the-congruence-engine/ |
Description | Textiles Investigation Planning Workshop (Leeds) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | 15 Co-Is and Project Partners for the Textiles investigations theme within the Congruence Engine project met to discuss and formulate areas of interest to work on with project partners. Project partners from the UK and outside the UK met for 'speed dates' and key areas of research were identified. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Textiles Investigation Planning Workshop (Manchester) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | A workshop in Manchester with congruence engine co-investigators, research fellows, project partners and study participants to develop further textile investigations and discussions around them including data sets. This trip included a visit of the Science Museum in Manchester's industrial heritage exhibits. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Textiles Reflection and Planning Workshop (London) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | A reflection session on the progress of investigations begun at the Leeds workshop in June, after a research "sprint" and a month developing different pieces of historical and digital work. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | The Congruence Engine: Digital Tools for New Collections-Based Industrial Histories: Session at Annual Conference of the British Society for the History of Science (Belfast) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Dr Tim Boon presented a session on Congruence Engine to BSHS delegates, informing historians of science and technology about the project and its current progress. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |