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Blog post
Jane Austen and the Georgian Social Whirl of Bath
This blogpost introduces the findings of a Doctoral Fellowship jointly supervised by the British Library and the National Trust, about Jane Austen and Georgian Bath. The Fellowship is linked to National Trust work on the Bath Assembly Rooms, and the blog post situates the fellowship research in that wider contect....Edwards, Joanne
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Other
Models for MapReader ACM SIGSPATIAL 2023 Geohumanities Workshop paper
Collection of fine-tuned models created during research published in Kasra Hosseini, Daniel C. S. Wilson, Kaspar Beelen, and Katherine McDonough. 2022. MapReader: a computer vision pipeline for the semantic exploration of maps at scale. In Proceedings of the 6th ACM SIGSPATIAL International Workshop on Geospatial Humanities (GeoHumanities '22). Association for...Hosseini, Kasra ; Beelen, Kaspar ; McDonough, Katherine ; Wilson, Daniel C. S.
computational humanities, computer vision, maps, models, and image classification
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Blog post
Mapping Caribbean Diasporic Networks through the Correspondence of Andrew Salkey
This is a guest post by Natalie Lucy, a PhD student at University College London, who recently undertook a British Library placement to work on a project Mapping Caribbean Diasporic Networks through the correspondence of Andrew Salkey.Lucy, Natalie
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Workflow
Mapping the Caribbean Diaspora through Andrew Salkey's Correspondence
A British Library PhD Placement project to map the Caribbean Diasporic Network evident in the correspondence files of the Andrew Salkey Archive using data visualisation platforms Gephi and Kepler. The aim of the project was to map the movement of the correspondents across the globe overtime and create visualisations of...British Library
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Blog post
Character, costumes and comedy: Pantomime posters in the Evanion collection
This blog post explores three pantomime posters within the Evanion collection at the British Library. The blog traces developments in Victorian pantomimes such as costumes, comedy, elaborate sets and celebrity appearances.Solomons, Amy
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Blog post
Star Baker or Avid Taste-Tester? – Exploring Evanion’s 19th-century baking ephemera collection
Developments in baking products in nineteenth-century Britain made baking easier, quicker and cheaper. Using advertisements from the Evanion collection, this blog looks at the revolution of the pudding in Victorian Britain.Solomons, Amy
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Learning object
Computer Vision for the Humanities: An Introduction to Deep Learning for Image Classification (Part 2)
This is the second of a two-part lesson introducing deep learning based computer vision methods for humanities research. This lesson digs deeper into the details of training a deep learning based computer vision model. It covers some challenges one may face due to the training data used and the importance...Strien, Daniel van ; Beelen, Kaspar ; Wevers, Melvin ; Smits, Thomas ; McDonough, Katherine
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Learning object
Computer Vision for the Humanities: An Introduction to Deep Learning for Image Classification (Part 1)
This is the first of a two-part lesson introducing deep learning based computer vision methods for humanities research. Using a dataset of historical newspaper advertisements and the fastai Python library, the lesson walks through the pipeline of training a computer vision model to perform image classification.Strien, Daniel van ; Beelen, Kaspar ; Wevers, Melvin ; Smits, Thomas ; McDonough, Katherine
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Learning object
Examining sports history through digitised & born digital resources
This workshop was held on November 11, 2022 as part of the Sporting Irish Lives conference hosted by Ulster University at their Belfast campus. It was aimed at postgraduate students and early career researchers that study the topic of sport. The running time for this session was 70 minutes so...Byrne, Helena
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WARCnet survey: COVID-19 Web Collections
This survey aimed to explore the methodologies and strategies employed by heritage institutions in collecting and documenting COVID-19-related developments on the Web. With a primary focus on European efforts, the survey sought to understand the scope and collection tactics of COVID-19 Web archives. Conducted under the auspices of the WARCnet...Bingham, Nicola ; de Wild, Karin ; Nyvang, Caroline ; Geeraert, Friedel
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TEI Metadata for an 8-volume copy of the Macklin Bible in the collection of the John Rylands Library, University of Manchester (11819)
Volumes 1-7 contain: The Holy Bible : embellished with engravings from pictures and designs by the most eminent English artists (London: printed by Thomas Bensley for Thomas Macklin, 1800). Volume 8 contains: The Apocrypha : embellished with engravings from pictures and designs by the most eminent English artists (London: printed...Billingsley, Naomi
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TEI Metadata for 24 individual plates in the second edition of the Macklin Bible in the collection of the John Rylands Library, University of Manchester (R47430)
The Holy Bible, embellished by the most eminent British artists (London: Cadell & Davies, 1824). This publication was the second edition of this illustrated Bible. The 24 XML files contain the TEI metadata for each plate by Naomi Billingsley. The XML files here contain the researcher-authored metadata for the plates,...Billingsley, Naomi
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TEI Metadata for a 2 volume copy of the Bowyer-Fittler Bible in the collection of the John Rylands Library, University of Manchester (R14793)
The Holy Bible ornamented with engravings by James Fittler from celebrated pictures by old masters (London: printed by Thomas Bensley for Robert Bowyer, 1795). The 2 XML files contain the TEI metadata for each volume by Naomi Billingsley. The XML files here contain the researcher-authored metadata for the volumes, which...Billingsley, Naomi
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A Guide to Open Access
Find out what open access means, how to publish research on an open access basis, and discover the resources and tools that enable free, online access to publications.British Library
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A Guide to Copyright and Creative Commons in Research
Learn the basics of copyright and licensing, find out what to consider when publishing your work and how to make use of published materials in your own research.British Library
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A Guide to Publishing Research
Find out how to choose the right format of publication and select a publisher, including methods of peer review and open access policies.British Library
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A Guide to Research Data Management
Find out how to manage your research data, from organisation and storage to security and sharing.British Library
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A Guide to Sharing Your Research Online
Find out how to share your research publications online, including publishing open access, the benefits of social media, making use of research evaluation and analytics tools, and how to use persistent identifiers. This will improve not just the impact of your research but also your own profile as a researcher.British Library
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Blog post
Clouds: How Luke Howard linked Weather Lore and Natural Philosophy
William Wordsworth’s (1770-1850) ‘lonely as a cloud’ poem was conceived in April 1802 on a spring day walk in the Lake District. A few months later, in December 1802, a pharmacist and amateur meteorologist, Luke Howard (1772-1864) delivered a paper in London, on the dynamics of cloud formations. The two...Déri, Andrea
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Blog post
Diarists and diaries
‘But one shower of rain all this month.’ - entered John Evelyn in his diary on 29th April 1681. What would you write about April 2020 in your diary? John Evelyn (1620–1706) is one of the best-known English diarists. He is known as a diarist but he was also a...Déri, Andrea
science, modern history, curiosity, writing, and environmental science
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Blog post
The Botish Library: developing a poetry printing machine with Python
In June 2020 the Office for Students announced a campaign to fill 2,500 new places on artificial intelligence and data science conversion courses in universities across the UK. While I’m not planning to retrain in cyber, I was lucky enough to be in the cohort for the trial run of...Rossi, Giulia Carla
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Blog post
Esperanto and Endangered Languages
Esperanto can be described as the language of hope, peace, and solidarity as Professor Renato Corsetti, General Secretary of the Academy of Esperanto has discussed in his previous posts for the European Studies blog. Hope remains the governing principle, as the name of the language attests (espero in Esperanto). Driven...Déri, Andrea
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Blog post
Writing Tools for Interactive Fiction
Interactive fiction (IF), or interactive narrative/narration, is defined as “software simulating environments in which players use text commands to control characters and influence the environment.” The British Library has been collecting examples of UK interactive fiction as part of the Emerging Formats Project, which is a collaborative effort from all...Rossi, Giulia Carla
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Blog post
When is a persistent identifier not persistent? Or an identifier?
Ever wondered what that bar code on the back of every book is? It’s an ISBN: an International Standard Book Number. Every modern book published has an ISBN, which uniquely identifies that book, and anyone publishing a book can get an ISBN for it whether an individual or a huge...Cope, Jez
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Other
Guides to Choosing Persistent Identifiers - Version 3
The FREYA Project has compiled short guides to help with choosing persistent identifiers for various types of entities. These are the final version. The first versions were released in May 2020 for community feedback and comment throughout June 2020. Revised versions were developed in July 2020 and are published here....Madden, Frances ; van Horik, René ; van de Sandt, Stephanie ; Lavasa, Artemis ; Cousijn, Helena
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Blog post
The British Library’s Response to the UKRI Open Access Review Consultation
The British Library holds Independent Research Organisation status with UK Research & Innovation. This has enabled us to develop an AHRC-funded Collaborative Doctoral Partnerships Programme and to work with various partners to attract joint funding for major research projects. In addition to these UKRI-funded projects, the British Library seeks to...Walker, Dominic
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Interactive resource
Introduction to EThOS: the British Library database of UK theses
The British Library service known as EThOS is effectively a shop window on the amazing doctoral research undertaken in UK universities. With half a million thesis titles listed, you can uncover unique research on every topic imaginable and often download the full thesis file to use immediately for your own...Gould, Sara
British Library, theses, research tools, dissertations, doctoral research, remote research, PhDs, and EThOS
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Interactive resource
The British Library's Shared Research Repository
Creative and cultural organisations require repositories that look good, are attractive to users and support a wide range of non-text research outputs. Join us to learn more about our shared repository for UK cultural heritage organisations. -
Interactive resource
Introduction to research data, data services and DataCite at the British Library (and beyond)
This webinar will provide an introduction to research data and how to use persistent identifiers such as DOIs to make research data and other digital outputs like theses and grey literature findable and citable online. This webinar will also provide an introduction to DataCite, an international non-profit organisation, which enables...Stewart, Sarah
research data, persistent identifiers, DOIs, research tools, and DataCite
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Interactive resource
How to access digital resources: a free webinar for researchers
Researchers working from home may find now, more than ever, that they cannot access all they need to do their research. This webinar will introduce the concept of open access, and the various tools and resources that enable access to the resources researchers need.Walker, Dominic
e-resources, digital resources, open access, remote work, and research tools
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Interactive resource
Project FREYA: How persistent identifiers can connect research together
This webinar will showcase the latest developments from the EC-funded FREYA project, including the PID Graph which provides a method to discover the relationships between different researchers and their organisations and find out the full impact of research outputs. It will also describe upcoming developments planned in the final year...Madden, Frances
persistent identifiers, DOIs, FREYA, metadata, research services, and PID graph
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Blog post
The Legacy of Slavery: A 19th Century Newspaper and 21st Century Racial Inequity
This blog post introduces a newly digitised collection of 18th/19th century Barbadian newspapers and commented on the slavery related content of these newspapers within the context of 21st century racism.Jevon, Graham
newspapers, Christianity, resistance, Barbados, racism, empire, Americas, colonialism, Caribbean, slavery, digital images, and British Empire
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Blog post
What’s in a name? The Sovietisation of the Mongolian language and the Challenges of Reversal
This blog post introduces a newly digitised collection of Mongolian newspapers and discusses how the script of the text within these newspapers highlights issues relating to the Sovietisation of the Mongolian language.Jevon, Graham
newspapers, Russia, Central Asia, Mongolia, digitisation, China, writing, digital images, and Russian revolution
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Blog post
Oil, storms and knowing part 2: Pliny, Franklin and the IPCC Special Report on Oceans
This post is the second of a pair to mark the period of the 25th Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, and is contributed by Andrea Deri, Cataloguer. In addition to seafarers, fishers in the Mediterranean Sea applied oil as Pliny the Elder and Plutarch...Déri, Andrea
science, maps, Americas, modern history, curiosity, travel, and environmental science
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Blog post
Oil, storms and knowing part 1: Seafarers Calm Waves with Oil
This post is to mark the period of the 25th Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, and is contributed by Andrea Deri, Cataloguer. A storm at sea is one of the most feared experiences, as it often presages shipwreck. Mariners would do anything to survive...Déri, Andrea
South East Asia, science, maps, Medieval history, East Asia, South Asia, Middle East, curiosity, travel, and environmental science
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Blog post
Digital Literature and Emerging Media: 10 Years of the New Media Writing Prize
On 18 July, The British Library hosted a Digital Conversations event to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the New Media Writing Prize. Digital Conversations is a series of events that explores the way in which technology is changing how we experience our life and how we communicate. New media writing...Rossi, Giulia Carla
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Blog post
Open and Engaged 2019: Open Access Week at the British Library
There are opportunities and benefits for growth in open access and open scholarship when experience and knowledge is shared between Higher Education Institutes and cultural heritage organisations. On Tuesday 22nd October, The British Library celebrated Open Access Week with the event, Open and Engaged - Forging links between higher education...Miles, Susan
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Learning object
British Topographical Views: an annotated bibliography of bibliographies
Topography is the description of places, and topographical prints and drawings have often been seen as “accurate” visual representations of specific areas at moments in history. The British Library holds an unrivalled collection of hundreds of thousands of prints and drawings of the British Isles. These include images of towns,...Myrone, Felicity
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Blog post
Adam Munni Ratna, a Buddhist monk in England in 1818
The Visual Arts section has recently acquired a portrait of Adam Sri Munni Ratna, a Singhalese Buddhist monk, who accompanied Sir Alexander Johnston (1775-1849) from Sri Lanka to England in 1817-18. Raised between Scotland, Madras and England, Johnston would be appointed as the President of the Council of Sri Lanka...Roy, Malini
religion, South Asia, art, visual arts, and Buddhism
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Blog post
The Lives of Typewriters and Large Data-sets: The Will Self Archive
Chris Beckett, Manuscripts Cataloguer at the British Library is currently working on the Will Self archive. The archive, which was acquired by the Library in 2016, consists of 24 large boxes of papers along with artwork, audio-visual material and the author’s computer hard drive. The first tranche is now discoverable...Beckett, Chris
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Other
Open Access Discovery Roadmap 2018
The solid foundation of the open access movement is the importance of public access to research, but it is clear that discovery of this open research remains one of the barriers to fulfilling this goal. There are many organisations making progress in this space and it is not always easy...Flanagan, Dimity ; Pieper, Dirk ; Piowowar, Heather ; Priem, Jason ; Bailey, Jefferson …
workshop; collaboration; open access; discovery; user experience; metadata; repositories
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Blog post
Open Access Discovery Workshop at the British Library
The solid foundation of the open access movement is the importance of public access to research, but it is clear that discovery of this open research remains one of the barriers to fulfilling this goal. There are many organisations making progress in this space and it is not always easy...Flanagan, Dimity
workshop; collaboration; open access; discovery; user experience; metadata; repositories
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Blog post
Open and Engaged: Open Access Week at the British Library
One of the key arguments in favour of open access to research is that the public should have the right to read the results of publicly funded research. While much effort is put into creating policies, workflows and business models to enable openness, are we succeeding in engaging the public...Flanagan, Dimity
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Learning object
صناعة السلطة: أختامٌ "إسلامية" في أيدي مسؤولي الاستعمار البريطاني
لم يكن الاستملاك الثقافي أقل أهمية من القوة العسكرية في صناعة الإمبراطورية البريطانية، ويعد استخدام مسؤولي الاستعمار البريطاني للأختام "الإسلامية" مثالًا صريحًا على ذلك. يقول المستشرق إدوارد ويليام لاين في تأريخه عن المجتمع المصري في القرن التاسع عشر: " يقتني ختمًا تقريبًا كل من يستطيع تحمل تكلفته، وإن كان خادمًا"....Lowe, Daniel
تشارلز دالريمبل بلجريف, المقيمية السياسية في الخليج العربي, وسائل الاتصال, لويس بيلي, مستشار حكومة البحرين, and العلاقات الخارجية
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Learning object
Performing Authority: the ‘Islamic’ Seals of British Colonial Officers
Cultural appropriation was as much a part of empire as military force. The use of ‘Islamic’ seals by British colonial officials is one example of this. In his record of nineteenth century Egyptian society, Edward William Lane wrote that ‘[a]lmost every person who can afford it has a seal-ring, even...Lowe, Daniel
foreign relations, communication methods, Persian Gulf Political Residency, Sir Knight Lewis Pelly, Adviser to the Government of Bahrain, and Sir Knight Charles Dalrymple Belgrave
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Learning object
British topography: ‘Our real national art form’?
Felicity Myrone explores how topographical art has been defined and categorised since the 18th century – by artists, critics, art historians and collectors.Myrone, Felicity
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Learning object
Looking at topographical images
Suggestions from Felicity Myrone about how to approach and define topographical images.Myrone, Felicity
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Learning object
Putting topography in its place
Felicity Myrone explores how the ‘placing’ of topography and the collections’ perceived status and current accessibility at the British Library is the result of complex and often unintentional sequences of events.Myrone, Felicity
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Learning object
Prints and drawings at the British Museum and British Library
Felicity Myrone explores how prints and drawings are generally encountered in museum and library collections, and how this affects their meaning and status.Myrone, Felicity
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Learning object
What is K.Top?
George III's extensive collection of maps and views is known as the King's Topographical Collection or 'K.Top' for short. Felicity Myrone explores the history and extent of this rich collection, encompassing up to 40,000 items.Myrone, Felicity
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Blog post
Karl Marx’s 200th birthday
This year sees the 200th birthday of political philosopher Karl Marx, who was born in the German town of Trier on 5 May 1818. In connection with the anniversary, the British Library opened a new display in its Treasures Gallery earlier this week. ‘Karl and Eleanor – Life in the...Siclovan, Diana
British Library, Germany, Eleanor Marx, Anglo-German, Germanic, history, printed books, exhibitions, British Museum, and Karl Marx
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Blog post
Languages of Reckoning: The Gagauz Number System
The more languages you speak, the more perspectives you have on the world. Bulgarian, Czech and Hungarian proverbs capture this observation: ‘Човекът е толкова пъти човек, колкото езика знае’ (Bulgarian: a person is as many times a person as many languages knows), ‘Kolik jazyků znáš, tolikrát jsi člověkem’ (Czech: as...Déri, Andrea
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Blog post
A Bioluminescent Christmas
Christmas is associated with sparkling lights that lift the eyes up to the stars in motionless awe. On Christmas 1875, a curious traveller wrote about a less-known yet equally magical light that drew his eyes below the horizon, a light that flared up with the breaking waves: sea sparkle. The...Déri, Andrea
science, Hungary, history, and South Asia
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Other
In the Spotlight Participants Survey
In summer 2018, the LibCrowds project at the British Library ran a survey designed to help us understand who our participants were. The 22 question survey was based on earlier surveys run by the Galaxy Zoo and Art UK Tagger projects, to allow comparison with other crowdsourcing projects. It was...British Library
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Other
Digital Sources in Europe for African History
There are copious resources for the study of African history on the internet. They include manuscripts and documentary archives, maps, museum collections, newspapers, printed books, picture collections, and sound and moving images. The websites of European institutions provide a good proportion of this content, reflecting the long, entangled, and troubled... -
Blog post
Calcutta to Bihar: an artist's journey
As part of the Visual Arts collections at the British Library, we hold an extensive collection of drawings, sketches and watercolours by amateur British and European artists who travelled through the Indian subcontinent. In 2015, we acquired a wonderful little sketchbook, measuring a mere 80 x 204 mm, by an...Roy, Malini
Hinduism, South Asia, art, visual arts, and Islam
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Blog post
East India Company headquarters on Leadenhall Street
BBC One’s new period drama Taboo with actor Tom Hardy follows the story of James Keziah Delaney and his encounters with the East India Company. As the headquarters of the East India Company on Leadenhall Street was demolished in 1861 which is the present day site of Lloyds of London,...Roy, Malini
trade, South Asia, art, and visual arts
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Learning object
الحبر الخفي: اعتراض البريد في الحرب العالمية الثانية
خلال الحرب العالمية الثانية، صدرت وعُممت تعليمات سرية إلى الوكلاء السياسيين في البحرين والكويت ومسقط تتعلق باعتراض البريد المار عبر الخليج. في أغسطس ١٩٣٩، صدَّقت حكومة الهند - التي كانت تترقب اندلاع الحرب في أوروبا - على اعتراض البريد في الخليج لإجراء أنشطة تتعلق بالفحص والرقابة. فتم تعيين ثلاثة موظفين...Lowe, Daniel
الرقابة, الحرب العالمية الثانية (١٩٣٩-١٩٤٥), وسائل الاتصال, and الخليج العربي
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Learning object
Invisible Ink: Intercepting Post in Second World War
During WWII, secret instructions for the interception of post passing through the Gulf were circulated to Political Agents in Bahrain, Kuwait and Muscat. In August 1939, anticipating the outbreak of war in Europe, the Government of India sanctioned the interception of post for examination and censorship in the Gulf. Three...Lowe, Daniel
communication methods, Second World War (1939-1945), censorship, and Persian Gulf
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Blog post
First report from the Will Self archive: family matters
Will Self’s review (for the New Statesman) of Peter Ackroyd’s Albion: The Origins of the English Imagination (2002) begins with the suggestion that his grandfather would have enjoyed the book. Before telling us why (Cockney visionaries both, with a tendency to compendiousness), we are treated to a pen-portrait of grandfather...Beckett, Chris
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Blog post
The writing of J. G. Ballard’s Crash: a look under the bonnet
Shock greeted the publication of J. G. Ballard’s Crash in 1973. Cult status quickly followed. Today, the novel is widely considered to be a modern classic, a novel that speaks both of its time – the darkening close of a decade of colourful liberation – and speaks dystopically to us...Beckett, Chris
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Blog post
No Longer in the Garage: The Archive of Galloping Dog Press, Poetry Information and Not Poetry
The small press publisher Peter Hodgkiss begins his memoir essay ‘It’s All in the Garage’ contemplating ‘a tatty cardboard box’ with ‘GDP’ written in fading red felt-tip pen on the side: ‘It has moved from landing to attic to garage 1 to garage 2 in two houses in Newcastle to...Beckett, Chris
literature, poetry, Contemporary Britain, manuscripts, and new collection items
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Blog post
‘Post-it’ notes in the Will Self archive
'My books begin life in notebooks, then they move on to Post-it notes, the Post-its go up on the walls of the room […] short story ideas, tropes, metaphors, gags, characters, etc. When I'm working on a book, the Post-its come down off the wall and go into scrapbooks.’ (‘Writers'...Beckett, Chris
literature, Contemporary Britain, manuscripts, and new collection items
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Blog post
Archive of Joan Bakewell joins the British Library’s Contemporary Archives Collections
Joan Bakewell’s autobiography, The Centre of the Bed (2003), begins in a white room – a room as white as ‘a fresh sheet of paper’ – at the top of the house in which she has lived for many years. Boxes and packets of papers long-forgotten have been retrieved from...Beckett, Chris
literature, television, Contemporary Britain, manuscripts, and archival research
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Blog post
Shubbak 2017: contemporary Arab culture at the British Library
The biennial Shubbak Festival returns to London this year between 1st and 16th July with a range of exciting and engaging events on contemporary Arab culture, with an array of literary events taking place once again at the British Library.Lowe, Daniel
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Learning object
Early Shakespeare sources: a guide for academic researchers. Part 1: manuscript and early print sources for Shakespeare's works
Adrian S Edwards surveys the 16th- and 17th-century sources for Shakespeare’s works – the few surviving pages of Shakespearean manuscript, the quarto editions of his plays and poems, and the large folio editions of his collected works – and gives an overview of the British Library’s holdings.Edwards, Adrian S.
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Learning object
The Opening of Crash in Slow Motion
Chris Beckett provides a close reading of the manuscript draft of Crash by J G Ballard, focussing on the novel's opening pages. In ‘Memories of Greeneland’ (1978), J G Ballard wrote that he had been ‘enormously influenced by [Graham] Greene's style, by his method of setting out the psychological ground...Beckett, Chris
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J. G. Ballard: Streets in the Sky and the Secret Logic of the High-Rise
Hardly a day goes by without a news report about London’s social housing crisis. There are currently more than 260 high-rise buildings (of 20 floors or more) either under construction or in the pipeline that are set to dramatically change the London skyline. Yet the high prices of the apartments...Beckett, Chris
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Learning object
Early Shakespeare sources: a guide for academic researchers. Part 2: the British Library's early Shakespeare collections
Adrian S Edwards outlines the history of collecting early Shakespeare editions, and examines in detail the collections of David Garrick, George III, Thomas Grenville and James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps, which make up three-quarters of the British Library’s early Shakespeare holdings.Edwards, Adrian S.
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Blog post
Lebanese LGBTQ publications: essays, magazines, memoirs and narratives
Blogger and novelist Fadi Zaghmout, together with translator Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp, recently visited the British Library. His debut novel, ‘Arūs ʻAmmān (ʻThe bride of Amman’), deals with the various struggles facing young Jordanians, including sexual orientation and gender identity. With this subject in mind, we looked at different sources –...Lowe, Daniel
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Blog post
Colonial Knowledge: Lorimer’s Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Oman and Central Arabia
John Gordon Lorimer’s monumental Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Oman and Central Arabia – often simply referred to as ‘Lorimer’ by many researchers - has been digitised and is now accessible for free through the Qatar Digital Library.Lowe, Daniel
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Blog post
The Death of a Political Agent: Captain Shakespear
Today, 24 January 2015, marks 100 years since the death of colonial officer and Arabian explorer and photographer, Captain William Henry Irvine Shakespear, who died in a battle at Jarrab between the forces of Ibn Saud, the founder of modern-day Saudi Arabia, and his adversary, Ibn Rashid. Shakespear was well...Lowe, Daniel
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Learning object
المعرفة الاستعمارية: دليل لوريمر عن الخليج وعُمان ووسط الجزيرة العربية
دليل الخليج وعُمان ووسط الجزيرة العربية من قبل جون جوردون لوريمر قد تم إستخدامه منذ فترة طويلة كمصدر رئيسي لدراسة المنطقة. غير أنه من الضروري فهم سياقات إعداد الدليل من أجل تقدير مضمونه. منذ فترة طويلة يُشار إلى موسوعة جون جوردون لوريمر المكونة من ٥٠٠٠ صفحة بعنوان دليل الخليج وعُمان...Lowe, Daniel
المقيمية السياسية في الخليج العربي, مكتب المستعمرات البريطانية, الزبارة, عُمان, موسوعات, لويس بيلي, الساحل المتصالح, ساحل مكران, الشارقة, الخليج العربي, and بيرسي زكريا كوكس
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Learning object
Colonial Knowledge: Lorimer’s Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Oman and Central Arabia
J. G. Lorimer’s Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Oman and Central Arabia has long been used as a central source for the study of the region. Yet, it is essential to understand the contexts of its production in order to fully appreciate its content. It has long been pointed out... -
Learning object
"الملل الإمبراطوري" والقراءة الإمبراطورية
وضّح مسؤول إستعماري بإسم هيكينبوثام الملل اليومي في إدارة الإمبراطورية بنكاته العملية وقائمة قراءة تهَرُّبية. سجلت المطبوعة البريطانية المتخصصة في عرض السير الذاتية والمعروفة باسم "هو إز هو" (Who's Who) في سنة ١٩٤٢ أن إدوارد ويكفيلد وتوم هيكينبوثام، الوكيل السياسي بالكويت، أبحرا حول وربة وهي جزيرة في الخليج تقع بالقرب...Lowe, Daniel
الوكيل السياسي بالكويت, عدن, الكويت, شبه الجزيرة العربية, اليمن, and المقيمية السياسية في الخليج العربي
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Learning object
‘Imperial Boredom’ and Imperial Reading
A colonial officer named Hickinbotham illustrates the everyday boredom of administrating the Empire with his practical jokes and escapist reading list. The British biographical publication Who’s Who of 1942 records that Edward Wakefield and Tom Hickinbotham, the Political Agent at Kuwait, circumnavigated Warbah, an island in the Gulf near the...Lowe, Daniel
Yemen, Kuwait, Political Agent, Kuwait, Aden, Arabian Peninsula, and Persian Gulf Political Residency
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Interactive resource
How word, symbol and song shaped history
Gus Casely-Hayford (SOAS and King’s College London), Janet Topp Fargion (British Library) and Marion Wallace (British Library) introduce the cultural dynamism and creativity of West Africa, and explain how word, symbol and song have shaped a thousand years of history.Casely-Hayford, Augustus ; Topp Fargion, Janet ; Wallace, Marion
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Blog post
Speaking out: political protest and print cultures in West Africa
West Africans made powerful use of writing and publishing to oppose colonialism and fight for independence. Since then, authors have not been reluctant to comment on the state of their nations and the world. Stephanie Newell (Yale University) and Marion Wallace (British Library) reflect on these developments.Newell, Stephanie ; Wallace, Marion
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Interactive resource
Crossings: African writers in the era of the transatlantic slave trade
Marion Wallace (British Library) introduces the leading writers of African heritage in 18th-century Britain, and explains how the pen became a weapon against both the slave trade and the system of enslavement itself.Wallace, Marion
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Blog post
Battle of Panipat 1761
Panipat, north of Delhi, is the location of three historic battles that shaped Mughal history. On the battlefield here in 1526, Babur defeated the Afghan Sultan of Delhi Ibrahim Lodi, which not only ended Lodi rule but gave the Mughals a stronger foothold on the subcontinent. The second battle took...Roy, Malini
Mughal India, South Asia, art, and visual arts
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Blog post
‘White Mughal’ William Fullerton of Rosemount
Scottish surgeon William Fullerton (d.1805) from Rosemount enlisted with the East India Company and served in Bengal and Bihar from 1744-66. Developing close ties with locals, including the historian Ghulam Husain Khan, he remained in the region after retiring. Although his impressive linguistic abilities brought him attention, Fullerton’s prominence stems...Roy, Malini
Mughal India, language studies, South Asia, art, and visual arts
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Blog post
Shubbak Literature Festival at the British Library
On Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 July 2015, the British Library will host the Shubbak Literature Festival as part of Shubbak, London’s largest biennial festival showcasing the best in contemporary Arab culture.Lowe, Daniel
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Blog post
‘Persian Gulf tragedy’ – the death of John Gordon Lorimer
On the morning of Sunday 8 February 1914, John Gordon Lorimer, the officiating British Resident in the Persian Gulf at Bushire, retired to his dressing room to ascertain the exact calibre of his automatic pistol as he wished to order cartridges from Bombay. He was later found lying on the...Lowe, Daniel
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Blog post
‘The Jewish State of Eastern Arabia’
In September 1917, Lord Francis Bertie, British Ambassador to France, received an unusual proposal from Dr M L Rothstein, a Paris-based Russian Jew. Bertie explained to the Foreign Secretary, Arthur James Balfour, that Rothstein proposed the Entente Powers should equip and organise an army ‘for the conquest of the Turkish...Lowe, Daniel
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Blog post
The Death of Queen Victoria: the Politics of Mourning and Memorialisation in the British Persian Gulf
This blog post marks the 195 anniversary of Queen Victoria’s birth on 24 May 1819. On the afternoon of 22 January 1901, Queen Victoria died at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. In the United Kingdom, as well as many thousands of miles away around the Empire, reactions ‘were...Lowe, Daniel
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Learning object
"مأساة الخليج العربي": وفاة وتَرِكة جون جوردون لوريمر
لقد اعتُبِرَت الوفاة المبكرة لجون جوردون لوريمر، المقيم المُفوّض في الخليج العربي ١٩١٣-١٩١٤، مأساة حزينة. مع ذلك فإن تَرِكته المتمثلة في "دليل الخليج وعمان ووسط الجزيرة العربية"، الذي ظهر بعد أربعين عامًا من وفاته، ظلت مصدرًا أساسيًا لجميع الدراسات التي أُجريت عن الخليج منذ ذلك الحين. في صباح يوم الأحد...Lowe, Daniel
المكان, موسوعات, عمليات الاستخبارات, بوشهر, and الخليج العربي
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Blog post
Distinctive leg-of-mutton legs and fine jewels: a new display of Indian paintings in the Treasures of the British Library
Regular visitors to the Sir John Ritblat Gallery: Treasures of the British Library, may have encountered our recent display of Natural History drawings from India next to the entrance to the Magna Carta. From 8 March 2014, a new display of Indian paintings from the Visual Arts collection will be...Roy, Malini
Hinduism, South Asia, exhibitions, and art
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Blog post
The accident that befell Sir Donald Friell McLeod
Even if the attendant or station inspector had shouted ‘Mind the Gap’ (the phrase first used in 1969 at rail stations in the United Kingdom), it would not have prevented the horrific accident that befell Sir Donald Friell McLeod at the railway station at Gloucester Road in 1872. Arriving at...Roy, Malini
religion, South Asia, art, and visual arts