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British Library Newspapers Online allows researchers to explore over three million pages of 18th and 19th century newspapers online. It's a brilliant resource that has changed the whole nature of historical investigation. It has also presented challenges, some of which were debated at Digitised History, a conference held at the BL on Tuesday.
I plan to write about the day on vexed issue. However, one point that intrigued me was a remark made by Jim Draper, Vice President and Publisher at Gale, when he mentioned that the Victorians were obsessed with the phrase 'eaten by' - as in humans being eaten by wild animals or cannibals.
This chimed with some of the background research I did for Those Who Dared. Starting with the obsession with sailors from Sir John Franklin's failed attempt to find the North West Passage resorting to eating their dead colleagues, to wild tales of cannibalism from around the world, the papers were indeed obsessed with the phrase. A quick search brought up numerous examples. I've chosen this Manchester Guardian story from January 14 1890, if only for the extra details about 'roasting' and 'besmeared with blood'.
Magnificent Maps: Power, Propaganda and Art is a major new exhibition at the British Library. The show brings together 80 maps, from 200AD to the present day, taken from the library's vast archive of more than four million. Many have rarely been seem, including a late 18th century view of Canton and, perhaps the earliest detailed map of Italy - displayed for the first time since it was hung in the Whitehall during the reign of Henry VIII.
As the title suggests, maps are as much about propaganda as they are about geography. Not all those on display are totally accurate represenations of the land, but instead are subjective images shaped by the political issues, desires and aspirations of the period in which they were drawn.
I had a quick look during my lunch break, although I'm planning a longer visit (the exhibition runs until September). Many of the maps are displayed in settings similar to those in which they originally would have been seen, such as bed chambers and the private rooms of rulers. Most are huge.
It's all very impressive, but the biggest crowd was to be seen peering at Stephen Walter's The Island, a map that sees London as independent from the rest of the UK. While more or less geographically correct, his view of the capital also offers a wealth of local and personal information. Visitors to the exhibition seemed to be keen to check out what Walter had to say about their favourite parts of the city. I was bemused to see Brockwell Park, my local patch of greenery, described as Cannabis HQ. Below is the Central London section.
See also the BBC's The Beauty of Maps - and there is still time to watch some of the excellent BBC Four programmes on iPlayer.
Captain Scott's last three diaries have been launched online by the British Library. Using Turning the Pages software, the three-dimensional animation allows the viewer to mimic the action of turning each page on the screen. Passages can be magnified and there is also commentary about Scott's attempt to be the first to get tothe South Pole. A sample page from the BL's Virtual books collection (click to enlarge):
Meanwhile, images from the expedition can seen at the Getty Images Gallery, in London. Ponting - The Journey South, is an exhibition of pictures taken by Herbert Ponting who spent 14 months at Cape Evans from 1911-1912 and produced over 1000 images.
