Article ID: CBB185987529

‘Just put it online’: The Taylor White project as a digitization case study (2021)

unapi

Creating access to digital surrogates of primary source materials has spurred the growth of history of science as a field. Enabling and supporting virtual access requires an understanding of the behind-the-scenes requirements of a digitization project. Using McGill's Taylor White Project as a case study, this article reveals how such a project is managed, to result in a unique digital collection that supports research in both the humanities and the sciences. The workflows described transformed a collection of 938 eighteenth-century natural history drawings from a relatively inaccessible archive to a searchable and browsable digital collection, complete with contextualizing interactive visualizations. Understanding this process reveals some of the ways in which digitized data can create new avenues for questioning and examining information.

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Article Victoria Dickenson (2021) Introduction: Undescrib'd: Taylor White (1701–1772) and His Collections. Notes and Records: The Royal Society Journal of the History of Science (pp. 507-513). unapi

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Authors & Contributors
Dickenson, Victoria J. V.
Céline M. Stantina
Lederer, Roger J.
Vida Javidi
François Tessier
Lauren Williams
Concepts
Science and art
Scientific illustration
Digitization
Natural history
Primary literature (historical sources)
Electronic collections online
Time Periods
18th century
21st century
20th century, late
Modern
20th century, early
19th century
Places
Canada
United Kingdom
London (England)
United States
Netherlands
India
Institutions
McGill University (Canada)
National Science and Media Museum (Bradford, UK)
Science Museum
Science Museum, London
McGill University
American Institute of Physics
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