Search Constraints
Search Results
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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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Interactive resource
Language, script and symbol in West Africa
West Africa is a place of great diversity – in language, in writing, in the hugely varied means of recording information and passing it on. Marion Wallace and Janet Topp Fargion (British Library) explore the region’s contribution to literacy, and the creativity with which West Africans communicate in word and...Wallace, Marion ; Topp Fargion, Janet
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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
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
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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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
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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Learning object
Topography and the historic shelving schemes at the British Library
Throughout the last 400 years librarians and curators have taken different approaches to classify topographical collections. Adrian Edwards, Head of Printed Heritage Collections at the British Library, explores the historic shelving schemes and traces the development of their organisation.Edwards, Adrian S.
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Conference paper (unpublished)
‘If the package is right, the pills are right’: Proprietary medicines, branding, and advertising, 1650-1850
Medical products, predominantly sold by newspaper and book printers, became the most heavily advertised branded good throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This fact, combined with the ever-increasing availability of digitised contemporary newspapers, has generated important work upon their advertisement and distribution. These studies have considerably enriched our understanding of...Basford, Jennifer
branding, material culture, advertising, proprietary medicine, and packaging
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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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Blog post
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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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
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
‘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
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
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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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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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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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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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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Interactive resource
Towards a National Collection: Persistent Identifiers as IRO Infrastructure – Project Launch Webinar
The project will bring together best practices in the use of PIDs in the UK heritage sector, with a focus on those that are Independent Research Organisations. Building on existing work and projects, we will share expertise and provide recommendations on the approach to PIDs for colleagues across the UK...Kotarski, Rachael ; Padfield, Joseph ; Stack, John ; Madden, Frances
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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
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
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
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
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
Hume’s Stray Feathers
Allan Octavian Hume (1829-1912), British administrator and one of the founders of the Indian National Congress, recorded an extraordinary story of resilience, the ability of people to cope with disruptions. Hume was a respected ornithologist. In January 1875 he boarded an old gunboat fitted for the Indian Marine Survey to...Déri, Andrea
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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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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
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
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
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
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
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
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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Other
Research reflections: a transmedia residency at the British Library
As a Digital Curator in the British Library’s Digital Scholarship department it is my role to encourage and support innovative, creative use and reinterpretation of the Library’s vast collections. Furthermore, my specific areas of personal research interest are how virtual and augmented reality technology, videogames and interactive fiction can be...Wisdom, Stella
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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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Blog post
A farewell to the Mughals
British Library's exhibition Mughal India: Art, Culture and Empire closed on 2 April 2013. The last few days of the exhibition saw a record number of visitors! Since opening in November 2012, we have been surprised by the overwhelming response from the press and social media. We never anticipated being...Roy, Malini
science, Mughal India, and art
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Blog post
Book of Affairs of Love
Karnama-i ‘Ishq (Book of affairs of love) by the Hindu poet Rai Anand Ram Mukhlis (d. 1751) is a romance in Persian on the afflictions of a young man’s heart and the challenges he faces for eternal love. The poetical narrative is derived from an existing Hindi literary work, the...Roy, Malini
Mughal India, South Asia, and art
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Blog post
Marianne North's Visions of India
The British Library holds one of the richest archives of prints, drawings and photographs from South Asia. As Visual Arts Curator, exploring the vast collections and learning about the history of the works of art is just part of my daily activities. Although my previous blog posts have focused on...Roy, Malini
South East Asia, South Asia, and art
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Blog post
Mughal painting by Faizallah recently acquired by the British Library
In our recent exhibition and the accompanying publication Mughal India: Art, Culture and Empire, we featured paintings made in Delhi as well as at the Mughal province of Awadh during the 18th century. In March, we were able to add to our collection a splendid work by the artist Faizallah...Roy, Malini
Mughal India, South Asia, and art
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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
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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
William Beckford's albums on Hindu mythology
The English novelist and noted bibliophile William Beckford is highlighted in the British Library’s current exhibition ‘Terror and Wonder: the Gothic Imagination’. Exhibition curators (Greg Buzwell, Tanya Kirk and Tim Pye) feature Beckford’s Gothic novel Vathek as one of the earliest examples in this style. Beckford’s masterpiece expressed the ‘orientalist...Roy, Malini
Hinduism, religion, South Asia, exhibitions, and art
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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
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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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
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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Other
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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Other
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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Other
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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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
‘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 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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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
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 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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Blog post
Performing Authority: the ‘Islamic’ Seals of British Colonial Officers
The function of seals as symbols of textual authority and ownership is deeply rooted in the Islamic world, especially in Arabic and Persian-speaking societies. Historically, seals were used for authorising various documents, including letters and legal contracts, and for marking the ownership of books and manuscripts. Edward William Lane attests...Lowe, Daniel
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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
Conference on Digital Islamic Humanities
Two representatives from the British Library attended the recent conference, ‘The Digital Humanities + Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies’, hosted by the Middle Eastern Studies Department of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Organised by Dr Elias Muhanna and held on 24-25 October 2013, this conference sought to bring together...Lowe, Daniel ; Sobers-Khan, Nurs
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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
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
The Death of Captain Shakespear
A little known first-hand account, that the British Agents in Bahrain garnered by chance, sheds light on William Henry Irvine Shakespear’s death. Captain William Henry Irvine Shakespear is an enigmatic figure in the history of Anglo-Saudi relations. Although he was one of the youngest Political Agents to serve in the...Lowe, Daniel
military operations, Naid, Āl Sa'ūd (Family), Kuwait, King of Saudi Arabia Sa'ūd bin 'Abd al-'Azīz Āl Sa'ūd, Saudi Arabia, and First World War (1914-1918)
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Blog post
George Percy Churchill’s Biographical Notices of Persian Statesmen and Notables
In 1906, the Government of India Foreign Department published (and republished in 1910) an index of prominent Qajar statesmen, compiled by George Percy Churchill, Oriental Secretary at the British Legation in Tehran. According to Cyrus Ghani, this collection of notes and genealogical tables, entitled Biographical Notices of Persian Statesmen and...Lowe, Daniel
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Learning object
The King’s Oryx: Ibn Saud’s Diplomatic Gift to George V
In 1920, a gift from Ibn Saud in the form of a female oryx was the first ever to have survived the difficult journey from Arabia to London. In correspondence between HM the King and the Amir of Najd of 1920 it was noted that an animal ‘unique of its...Lowe, Daniel
Āl Sa'ūd (Family), King of Saudi Arabia Sa'ūd bin 'Abd al-'Azīz Āl Sa'ūd, Saudi Arabia, and First World War (1914-1918)
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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
‘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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Learning object
‘Persian Gulf Tragedy’: the Death and Legacy of John Gordon Lorimer
The untimely death of John Gordon Lorimer, acting Resident in the Persian Gulf 1913–14, was seen as a tragedy. Yet, his legacy – in the form of his Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Oman and Central Arabia – emerged forty years later and has remained central to the study of...Lowe, Daniel
gazetteers, intelligence operations, Bahrain, Būshehr, and Persian Gulf
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Learning object
The Death of Queen Victoria: the Politics of Mourning for the British in the Gulf
Upon the death of Queen Victoria in 1901, instructions sent to the Native Agent at Sharjah on how to visibly mourn her death reveal aspects of the construction of empire via ritual mourning practices. Although Queen Victoria never set foot on the soil of the empire over which she was...Lowe, Daniel
foreign relations, Sharjah, and Bushire
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Learning object
A Considerable Fortune: The Wealth, and Death, of Sheikh Jāsim bin Muḥammad Āl Thānī'
At the time of Sheikh Jāsim bin Muḥammad Āl Thānī’s death in 1913, his great wealth was revealed to the British in intelligence reports sent by Yūsuf bin Aḥmad Kanoo. On 12 July 1913, Major Arthur Prescott Trevor, the British Political Agent at Bahrain, received an urgent report from Yūsuf...Lowe, Daniel
Qatar and Wahabi (Tribe)
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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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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... -
Other
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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Other
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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Other
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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Other
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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Other
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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Website
Locating a National Collection project website
Project website for the Locating a National Collection (LaNC) project that houses instances of LaNC’s Peripleo maps interface alongside descriptive text (https://github.com/britishlibrary/locating-a-national-collection). The website was built using Joe Padfield’s simple-site, many thanks to him (https://github.com/jpadfield/simple-site). LaNC was a Foundation project within the AHRC-funded Towards a National Collection Programme.Gadd, Stephen ; Simon, Rainer ; Rees, Gethin ; Isaksen, Leif
location, geography, map, and cultural heritage
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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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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
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
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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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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Learning object
Peripleo Linked Pasts tutorial
This is a tutorial in mapping cultural heritage and humanities data and making these available on the web using Peripleo software. Delivered as part of the Linked Pasts symposium on 23 Nov 2022, this document was provided as a handout. Peripleo is a prototype application for the discovery and spatial...Rees, Gethin ; Simon, Rainer ; Gadd, Stephen
location, cultural heritage, map, and geography
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Learning object
Locolligo British Library tutorial
This explanation of how to transform and wrangle geographical cultural heritage and humanities data using Locolligo software. Delivered as part of the British Library’s internal ‘Hack and Yack’ training programme on 19 Jan 2023, this document was provided as a handout. Locolligo is a single-page, browser-based JavaScript application to facilitate...Gadd, Stephen
location, geography, map, and cultural heritage
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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