2019: Year in Review

2019 was one for the books! Pun absolutely intended.

The second half of Michelle’s and Betty Schellenberg’s symposium on Women’s Book History took place from March 9th to 10th at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington. Alongside ten other scholars of books history, Michelle, Betty, and curators from the Folger and other participants, administered a series of workshops on paleography, manuscript description, publisher archives, and data modelling.

Participants, curators, and hosts at the Digital Strategies for the Women’s Book History symposium. Top left to right: Kate Ozment, Marie-Louise Coolahan, Melanie Bigould, Margaret J. M. Ezell, Andrew Winckles, Kirstyn Leuner, Cait Coker, Emily Friedman, Jennie Batchelor, Megan Peiser, Kandice Sharren, Jack Orchard; bottom left to right: Leith Davis, Betty Schellenberg, Michelle Levy, Melissa Salrin, and Laura Runge.

Spotted: Leith Davis taking a photo of an engraving of a leopard with a grinning Kirstyn Leuner in the background!

Kandice and Jack, in utter concentration, observe a manuscript.

Script Happens! Photo taken at the Typecase Industries for a letterpress workshop. Left to right: Cait Coker, Leith Davis, Kate Ozment, Melissa Salrin, Megan Peiser, Emily Friedman, Melanie Bigold, and Michelle Levy.

On April 6th, Michelle initiated a productive season for us by giving a plenary lecture entitled “The New Republic of Women’s Letters” at the Boston Area Romanticist Colloquium (BARC)’s Romanticism in a New Key: A Symposium in Honor of Jerome McGann hosted by the Boston University Centre for the Humanities.

April also featured a significant milestone for WPHP––the completion of our verification for all titles before 1800! What is verification, you ask? This means that each title has been actively verified by two or more peer-reviewed sources. Titles that could not be verified are marked as “Attempted Verification.” For a detailed run-down of our methodology, please visit our Project Methodology—Titles page.

To date, we have compiled over 2000 women who were actively involved in the book process of over 9000 books. While hastily (but cautiously!) checking the very last titles, of a list that originally measured over 3000, Sara took a screenshot of the very last one:

Also exciting was our official website launch in early October. For infrequent (but hilarious) updates, check out our Instagram page.

Lastly, Sara and Kandice attended the annual Canadian Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (CSECS) conference held in Quebec City from October 16 to 19. Sara participated in a graduate student roundtable centered around prioritizing and promoting digital research and pedagogy, where she presented on WPHP's digital outreach, methodology, and its relationship to other cultural-data projects. Kandice encouraged her from the sidelines!

SFU took CSECS by storm! From top left to top right: Leith Davis, David Weston, Sara Penn, Courtney Connor; bottom left to bottom right: Erin Keating, Kandice Sharren, Betty Schellenberg, and Linara Kolosov. (Missing Diana Solomon and Rawia Inaim!)

Left to right: Kandice, Sara, Michelle, and Hanieh. (Missing Victoria!)

And in December, the team ended a rewarding year with a lunch at Homer St. Cafe and Bar.