Archives and Writing Lives

《档案与写作生活》考虑了我们如何在数字时代访问和分析手写的历史文件，以及未来的下一步。近几十年来，由于网络和数字化的发展，我们使用档案资源的方式——包括信件、库存、法律文件、收据、工资清单和财务账目——发生了深刻的变化。然而，许多挑战依然存在。大量的档案，实际上是大部分的历史文件，仍然没有被阅读和分析。此外，在某些方面，可以说网络只是复制了某些旧的研究范式，而不是改变它们。这个项目问我们下一步的重点应该放在哪里？我们如何将鲜为人知、从未读过的档案材料赋予生命，并揭示它们前世生活的痕迹？档案与写作生活将重点放在早期现代手写档案资料上，这是一种特别具有挑战性的档案材料类别，数量庞大，而且众所周知难以破译和解释。本项目将有力地论证并说明以下好处：(1)协作和跨学科的工作模式，以促进知识的进步；(2)数字学术在转变研究和广泛传播研究成果方面的潜力；(3)通过对妇女生活来源的分析，包括对更广泛的历史叙述的新见解和更准确的版本，将获得特别的收获。这个项目的发现将有可能塑造未来如何使用和解释档案的议程。该项目将开发一套开放获取的研究出版物，并与创新的数字产出相关联，这些出版物将在未来许多年里作为该领域的参考点。档案和写作生活围绕三个研究主题组织，解决了贯穿始终的问题：数字奖学金如何改变档案研究？为了研究主题1，《哈德威克的贝丝的财务账目，1548-1601》，PI将发布一个交互式的网络版本，免费并公开在线，之前未发表的查茨沃斯庄园和哈德威克大厅的财务账目，以壮观和引人注目的细节展示了一个伊丽莎白大家族的日常往来。网络版本的核心数据将同时与EMMO项目（福尔杰·莎士比亚图书馆）和MEDEA项目共享和托管，以开发跨国际研究项目的历史金融账户数字编辑方法。对于研究主题2，苏格兰女王玛丽的信件和文件，1550- 1587年，PI将在网上免费公开出版大约800封苏格兰女王玛丽的信件和文件目录。自1844年以来，苏格兰女王的信件就没有被编辑过，这是将分析的重点转移到档案材料上的最有力的案例之一，以便对历史和政治局势进行更现实、更准确的描绘。PI将与WEMLO和EMLO项目（牛津大学博德利图书馆）合作并共享数据，以托管信件目录并开发建模和共享元数据的方法。对于研究主题3“早期现代档案和数字化转型”，PI将领导一系列活动、讲习班和研讨会，并编辑一本关于档案的主要合编书籍的一个独特部分，这将汇集学术研究人员、档案和图书馆专业人员、数字开发人员、机构决策者、第三部门人员、表演者和公众。通过这些活动，PI将为一系列潜在的档案用户创造机会，让他们参与有关早期现代档案来源所呈现的实际挑战、兴趣和机遇的问题。

Archives and Writing Lives considers how we access and analyse handwritten historical documents in the digital age and the next steps for the future. The way we use archival sources - which include letters, inventories, legal documents, receipts, wage lists and financial accounts - has undergone profound change in recent decades as a result of the web and digitisation. Yet many challenges remain. Vast areas of the archive, in fact most historical documents, remain unread and unanalysed. Furthermore, in certain respects, the web could be said simply to replicate certain older research paradigms, rather than transform them. This project asks where should our priorities lie next? How do we bring to life lesser-known and never-read archival materials and shed light on their traces of past lives? Archives and Writing Lives focuses its spotlight on Early Modern handwritten archival sources, which are an especially challenging category of archival material, being both voluminous in quantity and notoriously difficult to decipher and interpret. This project will argue forcefully for and will illustrate the benefits of: (1) collaborative and inter-disciplinary models of working in order to progress knowledge; (2) the potential of digital scholarship to transform research and to communicate research findings widely; (3) the particular gains to be made through analysis of sources for women's lives, which include fresh insights and more accurate versions of the broader historical narrative. The findings of this project will have the potential to shape the agenda for how archives are used and interpreted in the future. The project will develop a suite of open-access research publications alongside and linked to innovative digital outputs, which will stand as reference points within the field for many years to come.Archives and Writing Lives is organised around three Research Themes that address the question that runs as a thread throughout: how does digital scholarship change archival research? For Research Theme 1, Bess of Hardwick's Financial Accounts, 1548-1601, the PI will publish an interactive web-edition, freely and openly available online, of previously unpublished Chatsworth House and Hardwick Hall financial accounts that present in spectacular and compelling detail the everyday comings and goings of a grand Elizabethan household. The core data from the web-edition will simultaneously be shared with and hosted by the EMMO Project (Folger Shakespeare Library) and MEDEA Project to develop methods for digital editing of historical financial accounts across international research projects. For Research Theme 2, The Letters and Documents of Mary, Queen of Scots, 1550-87, the PI will publish, freely and opening online, a catalogue of c.800 letters and documents to and from Mary, Queen of Scots. Unedited since 1844, the Scottish Queen's letters offer one of the most powerful cases for shifting the focus of analysis back to the archival materials in order to produce more realistic and accurate portrayals of the historical and political situation. The PI will collaborate with and share data with the WEMLO and EMLO Projects (Bodleian Library, Oxford) to host the letter catalogue and develop methods for modelling and sharing metadata. For Research Theme 3, Early Modern Archives and Digital Transformations, the PI will lead a series of events, workshops and seminars, and edit a distinct section of a major co-edited book on Archives, that will bring together academic researchers, archive and library professionals, digital developers, institutional policy-makers, third sector personnel, performers and the public. Through these events, the PI will create opportunities for a range of potential archive users to engage with questions about the practical challenges, as well as the interests and opportunities, presented today by early modern archival sources.