4.0593 18th Century British Biography Database (1/67)
Elaine Brennan & Allen Renear (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Tue, 16 Oct 90 18:57:18 EDT
Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 4, No. 0593. Tuesday, 16 Oct 1990.
Date: Mon, 15 Oct 90 16:11 EDT
From: <BCJ@PSUVM>
Subject: 18th century British biography database
[... Forwarded by Kevin Berland, editor of C18-L ]
THE REST OF THE ICEBERG
The Eighteenth Century British Biography project (EBB) initiated
at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, England, in February, 1990,
aims to bring together the personal records of the English speaking
people of that period. It will include individuals who lived in areas
that were then colonies as well as the United Kingdom. It is intended
that the ultimate compilation will offer far and away the most complete
the most complete and authoritative listing of the British people of
the 18th century. Such diverse and prolific sources as directories,
society lists, book subscription lists, wills, parish registers,
charity subscriptions, obituaries from journals and newspapers, poll
books, apprentice returns, &c. will be included. Through using such
sources the project will make accessible large amounts of data about
the common man as well as the elite of the period.
The project will begin by creating a file of all local and
national directories, and all book subscription lists of the period;
these sources alone will produce a database of 1.5 million records.
At the same time some selected data from many other sources will be
interfiled, so as to work out the mechanisms of entry and retrieval;
it may be that the project will result in a standradized format for
biographical data, such as has been achieved in bibliography with
MARC. The first version of Machine Readable Biography (MARB) will
be published in the summer of 1990.
The project invites contributions of biographical records. Much
research, especially for theses, involves considerable accumulation
of data which fails to see the light of day except in summary form or
languishes unpublished. The project will interfile all such sources
in the database with full reference to the provenance of the materials.
Interested scholars should contact the Project office.
It is expected that EBB will be published in segments, beginning
in approximately two years. Publication will be in CD-ROM or whatever
medium then best fosters widespread accessibility, down-loading, and
manipulation.
A Newsletter will be issued gratis annually, beginning October 1990;
inquiries or requests to be placed on the mailing list are welcome. A
more detailed description is now available from the Project office.
Eighteenth Century British Biography
Park House
Ashow Nr. Kenilworth
Warwickshire CV8 2LE
Great Britain
Telephone (0926) 58813
Chairman: B.H. Baumfield
Director: F.J.G. Robinson
Finance Director: P.J. Miller
Academic Advisory Board: E.D. Barraclough (University of Newcastle),
J. Brewer (University of California - Los Angeles), J, Cannon
(University of Newcastle), K.E. Carpenter (Harvard University),
H.T. Dickinson (University of Edinburgh), W.A. Speck (University
of Leeds), H.L. Snyder (University of California - Riverside,
North-American Director of the Eighteenth-Century Short Title
Catalogue), M.L. Turner (The Bodleian, Oxford).
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This posting is provided courtesy of C18-L@PSUVM, the 18th-Century
Interdisciplinary discussion list; there is no official (or any
other kind of) relation between C18-L and EBB.
-- Kevin Berland, C18-L "List Owner"
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