Data-driven Histories: Reinterpreting 19th-Century Data

Benjamin Schmidt
Assistant Professor of History, Northeastern University
Core Faculty, Nulab for Texts, Maps, and Networks

www.benschmidt.org

Opaque and heterogeneous sources

02138

02138

Google's partner libraries shift in 1900, 1922, and later.

Towards Humanities Data Analysis

Ship's Logs

Whaling Logbooks

Source: Baumann Rare Books
1848 6 1     3723 29038 02 4    10ISABE*_N   1   5                                                           165 20779701 69 5 0 1                  FFFFFF77AAAAAAAAAAAA     99 0 790044118480601  3714N 6937W                                                                           NW     51 NW     57 NW     51                                          201A.STEWART       NEW BEDFORD             WHALING VOYAGE           2620 199

The 'first' Digital Humanists

In His mercy, around 1955, God led men to invent magnetic tapes.

Robert Busa in Perspective on the Digital Humanities: Schreibman et al, 2004.

Reading Digital Sources

  1. Technical Competence
  2. Understanding of biases (Source Criticism)
  3. Technique for reading (Hermeneutics)
  4. Argument

Source Criticism

Whaling Logbooks

Source: Baumann Rare Books
1848 6 1     3723 29038 02 4    10ISABE*_N   1   5                                                           165 20779701 69 5 0 1                  FFFFFF77AAAAAAAAAAAA     99 0 790044118480601  3714N 6937W                                                                           NW     51 NW     57 NW     51                                          201A.STEWART       NEW BEDFORD             WHALING VOYAGE           2620 199

Matthew Maury

Source: Confederate Navy Engraving 1862, from http://www.history.navy.mil/library/online/maury_mat_bene.htm

Logbooks in Abstract

Harvard University Library

Logbooks as punchcards

Wallbrink, H. and F.B. Koek, Data Acquisition And Keypunching Codes For Marine Meteorological Observations At The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute, 1854–1968

Logbooks as punchcards

Wallbrink, H. and F.B. Koek, Data Acquisition And Keypunching Codes For Marine Meteorological Observations At The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute, 1854–1968

Undigitized Elements

New Bedford Whaling Museum

Undigitized Elements

New Bedford Whaling Museum

Undigitized Elements

New Bedford Whaling Museum

ICOADS 'decks'

Source: Woodruff et al., 2011

Hermeneutics of weather data

Maury's wind and current charts

Maury D3

Maury D3

Whaling Voyages

Whaling Voyages

75th-percentile shipping times from the US East Coast, calculated using Dijkstra's algorithm from individual paths.

Deck 701, US Maury Collection (1789-c.1865)

Deck 892, US shipping 1980-1997

ICOADS Deck 720, German weather data, 1876-1914

ICOADS Deck 735, Russian Research Vessel (R/V) Digitisation

Closeup of Deck 735. Soviet Vessels carefully avoiding the coast of South America.

ICOADS Deck 735, Russian Research Vessel (R/V) Digitisation

Acushnet Crew Register, 1840

Whaling Vessel Crews

New Bedford Whaling Museum

Physical Descriptions of Whaling Crewmembers

New Bedford Whaling Museum

Digital history is about sources, not methods

Data sources are stories about structures

Humanities data analysis lets us understand how states see

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