The University of Twente Department of Science, Technology and Policy Studies (STePS) is part of a consortium that will carry out research on making handwritten and illustrated archives digitally accessible. NWO has awarded the project 626,000 euros from its Creative Industry - Thematic Research programme. Brill Publishers has also invested 268,000 euros (part in cash and part in kind).
Complex and difficult to decipher
Many handwritten and illustrated archives contain a wealth of information, but remain largely underexplored because they are complex and difficult for computers to decipher. The aim of the Making Sense of Illustrated Handwritten Archives project is to develop a digital environment that resolves this challenge and connects heterogeneous archival content to other digital sources. The project will be centred around one of the top collections of Naturalis Biodiversity Center: the archive and collection of the Natuurkundige Commissie, which contains a rich verbal and pictorial account of nature, cultures and economics in the Indonesian archipelago (1820-1850).
Making use of diverse systems
The researchers in the project - historians of science from STePS, computer scientists, and heritage professionals - will use an advanced system for handwriting and image recognition (Monk), complemented by contextual information on species, locations and habitats. Naturalis’ taxonomic expertise, in combination with history of science methods, will be used to refine the system further. The outcome of the project will allow Brill to offer the system as an online service for the heritage sector, as a strengthening of its digital humanities profile. This will serve both curators of handwritten and illustrated archives and researchers who wish to further the understanding of these collections.
Bringing different expertises together
The 4-year project includes the appointment of two computer science PhD students (Leiden, Groningen), a post-doctoral researcher in the history of science (Twente) and a specialist on 19th century taxonomy and natural history (Naturalis). ‘The unique archive of the Natuurkundige Commissie serves as a perfect challenge to combine expertise from different universities and disciplines,’ says Brill’s Senior Acquisitions Editor Michiel Thijssen. ‘The resulting technologies will advance the ways in which scholars can study the archived human cultural heritage.’
Joint project application
The application for the project was submitted jointly by:
- Leiden Centre of Data Science
- Naturalis Biodiversity Center
- ALICE (University of Groningen)
- STePS (University of Twente)
- LIACS (Leiden University)
- Brill
Image: page from a collection of field notes with a description of a genus of mouse. Source: Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Archive of the Natuurkundige Commissie voor Nederlands-Indië.
