The William Blake Archive
Project Records,
1995-2002
CBI 174
COLLECTION SIZE: 4.6 cubic ft. (6 boxes)
CREATOR: Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities
ACQUISITION: The records were given to the Charles Babbage Institute by John Unsworth, Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities at the University of Virginia (IATH), in May 2002.
ACCESS: Access to the collection is unrestricted.
COPYRIGHT: The Charles Babbage Institute does not hold the copyright to the materials in the collection. Researchers may quote from the collection under the fair use provisions of the copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code).
PREFERRED CITATION: The William Blake Archive Project Records, (CBI 174), Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.
Historical Note
The William Blake Archive Project was proposed in 1993 by the Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities (IATH), a humanities computing research center located at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, as an experiment in hypermedia scholarly communication. A collaboration was formed between the IATH, directed by John Unsworth, and three noted Blake experts, the latter of whom also serve as the editors of the William Blake Archive Web site: Morris Eaves, University of Rochester; Robert Essick, University of California, Riverside; and Joseph Viscomi, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The William Blake Archive Project, as a pioneer in the area of electronic scholarship, represents one of the earliest and most influential examples of electronic scholarship, establishing standards for electronic editing, site construction, and digital reproduction, serving as the model for subsequent projects.
The William Blake Archive Project Web site (http://www.blakearchive.org) was first launched in 1996 and is located and maintained at the IATH. The Project Web site unifies access to the dispersed prints, paintings and poems of William Blake (1757-1827). A growing number of contributors to the Web site’s visual and literary contents include originals borrowed from American and British institutions, as well as a major private collector, who have given the William Blake Archive the permission to use thousands of Blake’s images and texts free of charge. Most of the original Blake texts and images are otherwise difficult to view because of their obscure location or fragile condition.
Project participants met annually at “Blake Camp.” All other project-related communication of this intensive scholarly collaboration was conducted via email.
The William Blake Archive Project has been sponsored by the Library of Congress and supported by a variety of institutions including the Getty Grant Program, Essick Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities (Preservation and Access Grant), Paul Mellon Centre for the Study of British Art, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Sun Microsystems and Inso Corporation.
Project participants consisted of Director John Unsworth, University of Virginia; Editors Morris Eaves, University of Rochester; Robert Essick, University of California, Riverside; and Joseph Viscomi, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Technical Editors Matthew Kirschenbaum, University of Maryland, College Park; and Andrea Laue, University of Virginia; and Project Manager Andrea Dickens, University of Virginia. An advisory board is composed of thirteen scholars from various American academic institutions such as Columbia University, Loyola University, University of California, University of Virginia, as well as British institutions such as University College London, the British Museum, London and the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.
The William Blake Archive Project Records consist of meticulously preserved materials which reflect the Project’s entire development from its inception in 1995 to the time the records were given to CBI in 2002. These records include grant proposals, meeting minutes, project participants’ email correspondence, the public “Blake update” message board, screen captures from the 1995 HTML demo forward, user comments, and technical materials documenting the development of the Blake Archive Document Type Definition. All electronic records have been printed onto paper.
The Blake Camp records consist of agendas and meeting minutes of these annual meetings from 1997 to 2002. Information includes subjects discussed at the meetings as well as various decisions made about Project details.
“Updates on the William Blake Archive” consists of printed copies of Project Web site newsletters which give users a detailed progress report about the William Blake Archive Web site, such as new texts and visual items most recently available or forthcoming on the Web site, as well as information about funding and updates to other portions of the Web site. These newsletters appeared four to six times annually.
The bulk of the collection is comprised of the blake-proj messages (entire contents of Boxes 1-3, and Box 4, folders 1-17, Box 5, folders 7-12, Box 6, folders 1-9) that consist of the email correspondence between various collaborators of the Project from 1997 to 2002 which provides a detailed documentation of the development and daily operation of the project.
“About the Archive” reflects the name of a part of the Web site which includes contents of eleven separate Web site links containing documentation and supplementary information about various aspects of the William Blake Archive. Folder names reflect the separate respective link names.
Screen Captures includes full-color print-outs of four samples of image captures from the Web site in assorted versions.
Document Type Definition (DTD) Files consist of four print-outs in one folder of encoded description describing the proposed encoding terms and consistent structure of the documents to be included in the Web site. These documents reflect modifications to portions of the Web site between 1997-1999.
User Comments consists of a very small sampling of Web site user email comments and suggestions about the Web site sent in 1996 and from 1999 to 2002.
Paper and Articles about the Archive include articles written predominantly by editors and staff members of the William Blake Archive Project for publication in journals about various aspects of the Project.
IATH = Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities
Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities
“Update on the William Blake Archive,” 1996-2002
blake-proj messages, 1997-2002