Digitising the Manuscript Letters of John Ruskin

Friends of the National Libraries Digitisation & Open Access Fund

Project Leads: Professor Sandra Kemp and Dr Chris Donaldson

This project explored how machine learning can reveal hidden patterns in Ruskin’s correspondence. Working with postgraduate students, we digitised a sample of Ruskin’s letters and ran a series of experiments using the digital transcriptions to explore establishing new possibilities for research and standards for the digitisation of the more than 7,400 manuscript letters in The Ruskin Whitehouse Collection.

Image: Encoded transcription and digital image of Ruskin’s letter to Joan Severn, 2 July 1867