DETAILED TIMELINE

2017

Initial discussions between Tom Berenato and Anna Svendsen about a large-scale digital archive of David Jones’s papers

2018

Founding of the David Jones Research Center (501c3) which took formal oversight of the newly-conceived Jones digital project

Grant from a private donor for $20,000 as seed-funding for large-scale digital project. This donation has since covered:

  • travel and accommodation for leaders of various TEI training workshops

  • software for workshops and continued editing

2020

Presentation by Tom Berenato and Anna Svendsen at the MLA Annual Convention, panel 64: “Editing the Interpolational Imagination: The Book of Balaam’s Ass in the David Jones Digital Archive” (January, 2020)

Award of $14,000 from the Cambridge Humanities Research Grant Scheme (match funding between Cambridge University and David Jones Research Center). Collaboration of Laura McCormick Kilbride (Peterhouse, Cambridge University), Huw Jones and Yasmin Faghihi (Cambridge Digital Humanities) and Anna Svendsen and Tom Berenato (DJRC). Covered:

  • digitization and hosting of the letters from David Jones to Jim Ede (originals in the Kettle’s Yard Museum, Cambridge) on the Cambridge Digital Library

  • costs of a hybrid TEI-training workshop (at Cambridge University and Kettle’s Yard Museum) using the manuscripts

Award of 75,000 NOK (about $7,000) as part of the SPIRE Grant Scheme in partnership with the University of Bergen, Norway. Collaboration of Erik Tonning (Bergen), and Anna Svendsen and Tom Berenato (DJRC). Covered:

  • scanning and hosting of The Book of Balaam’s Ass manuscripts (originals at the National Library of Wales) on the Cambridge Digital Library

  • costs of a hybrid TEI training workshop (at the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth) using the manuscripts

2021

TEI hybrid training workshops with Cambridge Digital Humanities at Cambridge University and the National Library of Wales (Aberystwyth, Wales) — deferred a year because of COVID

Since this time, a team of editors trained in the TEI workshops has been encoding the rest of the material into TEI. The editorial team meets monthly via Zoom to discuss TEI and transcription queries.

2022–2023

Yasmin Faghihi and Huw Jones (with Matthew Holford) discuss what they have learned through the TEI workshops they gave for the David Jones Digital Archive: “Teaching the Text Encoding Initiative: Context, Community, and Collaboration,” Journal of Open Humanities Data 8(0), p. 15. Available at: https://doi.org/10.5334/johd.72.

Robin D’Souza receives a the Junior Fellowship of St. Michael’s College, followed by the Gilson Postdoctoral Fellowship (both University of Toronto), part of the work for which was preparing the letters from David Jones to René Hague and material relevant to Hague’s Commentary on The Anathemata for scanning and hosting on Archive.org

2023-2024

Award of $2,500 from the Institute of Liberal Arts Minor Grant and $10,000 for the Academic Technology Innovation Grant (both Boston College). Collaboration of Catherine Enwright (Boston College), Huw Jones and Yasmin Faghihi (Cambridge Digital Humanities) and Anna Svendsen and Tom Berenato (DJRC). Covered:

  • In-person TEI training workshop (including purchase of software) at Boston College in partnership with Cambridge Digital Humanities using the letters from David Jones to Vernon Watkins (originals in the Burns Library, Boston College)

  • exhibition of original archival material from Jones’s papers at the Burns library, Boston College

2024-2025

Award of £23,000 from the Open Societal Challenges Grant (The Open University) for “Opening the Archives: Digital Tools for Democritising the Arts,” part of which will include a born-digital exhibition of David Jones’s painted inscriptions held in the National Library of Wales. Collaboration of Jasmine Hunter Evans and William Kynan Wilson (Open University), Jason Evans (National Library of Wales), and Anna Svendsen and Tom Berenato (DJRC). Covered:

  • scanning and hosting of 11 painted inscriptions of David Jones (originals kept in the National Library of Wales) on the Cambridge Digital Library and the NLW website

  • hybrid specialist workshop (at the National Library of Wales) on TEI and other digital tools that will enable a team of eight researchers to create a born-digital exhibition of Jones’s painted inscriptions

  • public engagement day to user-test a pilot of the digital exhibition

  • seminar for GLAM sector librarians and administrators about online exhibitions in Wales

All images reproduced with the kind permission of the Trustees of the David Jones Estate/Bridgman Images.