Adam Matthew Digital Creative Resources for Teaching & Research  

Adam Matthew Digital - Latest News

Major Consortial Deal for Adam Matthew in Canada   17/06/2008

Adam Matthew Digital, a leading publisher of archival material for the social sciences and humanities, is proud to announce a major agreement with the Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN) to supply eight digital products to 67 Canadian universities.

“This ground-breaking agreement reflects our growing reputation in Canada,” said Khal Rudin, Adam Matthew’s Sales & Marketing Director. “We are immensely grateful to the librarians and scholars across Canada who value our unique content and made this agreement with the CRKN possible,” Mr Rudin said.

This agreement will give approximately 900,000 researchers, scholars and students across Canada access to eight of Adam Matthew’s digital resources. These include products such as Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice, 1490-2007, Eighteenth Century Journals Portal and Medieval Travel Writing.

Please click here to read the full press release (PDF document).

 

FREE Sample and Upload of New Material to Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice, 1490-2007   05/06/2008

We are delighted to announce another major upload of material to Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice 1490-2007, which is great news for the current users of this resource who total well over one million.

A free sample of documents from Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice, 1490-2007, is available here (this is a large file - 4.8Mb - and may take time to download on dial-up connection)

This is also a great time for those institutions that do not have access to the resource to trial it, as the depth and scope of the collection is expanding all the time with over 100,000 pages of new source material already added since its launch in May 2007.
This essential resource for slavery studies not only brings together rare primary documents relating to slavery over an extensive time period, it also acts as a portal to a large number of further resources on the web.

This upload is particularly strong for maps, with the inclusion of 85 colour maps of Africa, North and South America and Asia Pacific from The National Archives (UK). Also from their holdings is material on the Caribbean and Africa including documents relating to Barbados, Antigua, St Vincent, Sierra Leone and African Forts.

Louisiana State University has contributed extensive material on plantations in the US South.

The material from Berea College offers users the chance to explore the first interracial and coeducational college in the South, and how their commitment to interracial education was overturned in 1904 by the Kentucky Legislature’s passage of the Day Law, which prohibited education of black and white students together. We are featuring a wealth of important manuscript and printed records on these and other events in Berea’s interesting history, all of which have been digitized in full colour.

As well as the addition of a large number of primary sources, there are also two new contextual essays from Professor David Richardson of the Wilberforce Institute for the study of Slavery and Emancipation, University of Hull and Professor Mary Ann Mahony of Central Connecticut State University.

Further uploads of material will take place this year including material from the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and Pennsylvania Abolition Society.

This is just a small sample of images from the wide range of documents available to registered users. All documents within the resource are filmed and provided in their entirety and the contents listing given at the start of the sample provides references to the full document within the digital resource.

Please contact us for further details on how to make this resource available at your institution, or register now for a free, four week trial.

FREE Sample of an Essay from Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice, 1490-2007   29/05/2008

Download a free sample of Professor David Richardson's introductory essay to Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice, 1490-2007 here.

The full essay, which is a recent addition to the resource, is available to all registered users now.

For a free, four-week trial of this outstanding resource, please see our online trials page to register.

 

America, Asia and the Pacific - Now Available!   09/05/2008

This new resource showcases the visually captivating collections of the great polymath Edward Sylvester Morse (1838-1925).

Edward S Morse was notable for his work in natural history, ethnography and art history – but, perhaps most famous for his work in bringing Japan and the West closer together.

He was one of the first Americans to live in Japan – teaching science at the Imperial University of Tokyo – and he devoted much of his life to the task of documenting life in Japan before it was transformed by Western modernization.

In addition to preserving the household records of a samurai family and many accounts of the tea ceremony, Morse made notes on subjects as diverse as shop signs, fireworks, hairpins, agricultural tools, music, games, art and architecture.

An accomplished draughtsman, his pencil and ink drawings, enliven his diaries and correspondence and make his papers a pleasure to read.

This collection will be of great interest not only to scholars of East Asian Studies, but also to those studying Art History, Ethnography, Natural History and the history of U.S.-Japanese relations.

The collection is divided into twelve main series: Correspondence; Diaries; Scrapbooks; Natural History; Archaeology Field Work; Ethnology; Japanese Pottery; Lectures; Publications; Inventions; Materials Collected by Morse; and Financial Records.

"It is splendid that the Papers of Edward S Morse are now being made available in digital form.  He was a crucial figure in the initial engagement between Japan and America and his papers will be of great interest not only to scholars of the  East Asia but also Americanists concerned with their nation's early contacts with the Far East."

Professor Robert Rosenstone,

Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology

For a free, four-week trial of this outstanding resource, please see our online trials page to register.

Duke University Libraries Review China Online   08/05/2008

The following review of China: Trade, Politics and Culture, 1793-1980, was published in the Spring 2008 edition of Duke University Libraries magazine (volume 21, no. 2/3). We are grateful to Ilene Nelson, Editor and Luo Zhou, Chinese Studies Librarian for allowing us to reproduce this article in full:

From England’s first diplomatic mission to China in the late 18th century to the rise of the People’s Republic in the twentieth century, European and American government representatives, missionaries, business people and tourists living and working in China documented their activities and observations, creating an invaluable record of China’s evolution over two centuries into a modern power. Many of the materials compiled by these visitors, together with rare periodicals, color paintings, maps photographs, and drawings, are preserved in London at the library of the School of Oriental and African Studies and the British Library. Holdings from these libraries supplemented by sources from several other libraries in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and the United States, including Duke’s Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library, are the basis for a newly published digital collection, China: Trade, Politics and Culture 1793-1980, which the Duke Libraries have acquired.

The collection offers accessible and authoritative English-language sources that give an account of China’s interaction with the West over time. Because the collection is available online, it will be especially attractive for use in the classroom. In addition, the collection’s breadth and depth make it an ideal resource for projects on almost any aspect of Chinese history during the two hundred years that are covered. Recognizing the collection’s potential value to students and China scholars, Duke faculty members encouraged the Libraries to purchase it. History professor Dominic M. Sachsenmaier says in his recommendation:

“This database can be a superb research and teaching device. The visual material is wonderful, and the interactive maps are some of the best ones in the field of Chinese history that I have see thus far. In addition, the English translations of may texts will be extremely helpful to students. With this database, undergraduate students will be able to produce a kind of research papers, which they could not have possible written before.”

The collection’s riches include key documents from the Chinese Maritime Customs Service as well as the original reports of the English diplomatic missions of 1792 and 1816. There are letters that detail events of the first Opium War, survivors’ descriptions of the Boxer War, and personal diaries and photographs that open the door on family life. Extensive and fully searchable runs of periodicals such as The Chinese Recorder and Light and Life magazine describe the lives of missionaries and report on their work in China.

In addition to the collection’s textual material, there are more than 400 color paintings, maps, and drawings by English and Chinese artists, as well as countless photographs, sketches and ephemeral items that depict Chinese people, places, customs and events. The graphic material can be browsed and searched, with a large-screen viewer permitting close examination of each image. The interactive map facilitates searches of the collection by geographical region. Zoomable province maps can be viewed simultaneously with documents, making it possible to trace events and journeys mentioned in the texts.

The abundance of imaghes and wealth of English-language primary sources comprising China: Trade, Politics and Culture 1793-1980 will enable students to undertake ambitious research projects, many of which would have been impossible in the past because of the language barrier. This remarkable digital collection also enhances the Duke Libraries’ holdings in modern Chinese history, which is a collecting focus.

Luo Zhou

Chinese Studies Librarian, Duke University Libraries

To see the Duke University Libraries magazine online, please click here.

 

Adam Matthew Digital and Carbon Offsetting   10/03/2008

Adam Matthew Digital was founded on 1st January 2007 and from the outset we have tried to adopt a responsible approach to the environment. We try to recycle where we can, we use a water filtration process that contributes to Pump Aid, and we have also adopted a carbon offsetting programme with Climate Care. Specifically, we have offset the carbon emissions from:

  • Our energy use
  • Our business mileage
  • Our business travel

Some people may see carbon offsetting as a token gesture – but we see it as an important commitment to the environment. We chose Climate Care as our partner because payments to them fund a portfolio of projects around the world that help to reduce carbon emissions and to promote green energy. These include projects in places such as Honduras, India, Kazakhstan, the Marshall Islands, Mexico, South Africa and Uganda concerning Bio Energy, Wind Energy, Efficient Lighting, Efficient Stoves and Rainforest Restoration.

Climate Care are guided in their choice of projects by an Environmental Steering Committee, which includes eminent environmentalists and NGOs (such as Forum for the Future and the World Wildlife Fund) to ensure that its offsets are delivered and are to the highest standards.

In addition, we are making increased use of conference calls to reduce the amount of travel that we do.

For further details on Climate Care, please see their website.

 

Victorian Popular Culture Now Available!   07/03/2008

A visually stunning resource that students will love, Victorian Popular Culture, with its innovative portal interface, welcomes readers into the darkened halls, small backrooms and travelling venues that hosted everything from spectacular shows and bawdy burlesque, to the world of magic and spiritualist séances.

It describes popular entertainment in America, Britain and Europe in the period from 1779 to 1930 and shows how interconnected these worlds were.

The first self-contained cluster of materials deals with ‘Sensation, Magic & Spiritualism’, and is based on two major resources:

• Entertaining the Supernatural: Rare printed sources from the Harry Price Library of Magical Literature at Senate House, University of London.


• The History of Magic Scrapbooks from the Houdini Collection with related material from the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center.

This resource will be of interest to students of English, History, Drama and Cultural Studies illuminating the social and cultural shifts from the Romantic era through to the onset of Modernity.


It will be an essential teaching and research tool for all those exploring popular cultural phenomena such as Conjuring, Escapology, Parlour Magic, Animal Magnetism, Mesmerism, Psychic Phenomena, Séances and ghost hunting.

A detailed introductory essay by Dr Peter Otto of the University of Melbourne introduces the contents of the collections and suggests fruitful areas for research.

Martha Fogg, Project Editor for Victorian Popular Culture, picks highlights from the collection and comments:

“Every document in Victorian Popular Culture has been selected for its rarity and interest for scholars researching the history of magic and spiritualism in the 19th and early 20th centuries”.

For a free, four-week trial of this outstanding resource, please see our online trials page to register.

Perdita Manuscripts: Women Writers, 1500-1700 Now Available!   14/02/08

This resource is produced in association with the Perdita Project based at the University of Warwick and Nottingham Trent University.

‘Perdita’ means ‘lost woman’ and the quest of the Perdita Project has been to find early modern women authors who were ‘lost’ because their writing exists only in manuscript form.

We have now enhanced their path-breaking work by linking the new detailed catalogue descriptions with complete digital facsimiles of the original manuscripts. The result is a resource which is indispensable for anyone interested in women and women's writing in Early Modern Britain.

The manuscripts are remarkably varied in their content including works of poetry, religious writing, autobiographical material, cookery and medical recipes, and accounts. Historians and literary scholars alike will find this an invaluable resource. There are contextual essays from academics working in the field, as well as biographical and bibliographical resources.

Dr Jill Millman, Consultant Editor (University of Warwick) describes Adam Matthew Digital resource as:

“Wrapped in a stunningly beautiful package, combining all the functionality of the original catalogue with free-text and multiple search options, Adam Matthew Digital's Perdita Manuscripts deserves to be used by everyone involved in early modern studies.”

For a free, four-week trial of this outstanding resource, please see our online trials page to register.

Empire Online - Imperialism and American Empire in Global Perspective   05/02/08

As the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan continue to fuel political and ideological debate, users of Empire Online can take this opportunity to read 'Imperialism and American Empire in Global Perspective' a fascinating and comprehensive review of the international relations of the United States in the context of Imperialism theory by Ian Christopher Fletcher and Yaël Simpson Fletcher, University of Georgia.

This lead article highlights some of the relevant primary sources in the Empire Online database as well as suggesting some of the key analytic and scholarly contributions to the burgeoning literature about imperialism and American empire, opening up perspectives for readers, who will undoubtedly generate their own insights into empire and imperialism while examining the database sources.

 

Slavery Online - February 2008 Upload   04/02/08

The February release of material for Slavery Abolition and Social Justice 1490-2007 will include c.10,600 images of printed material from the British Library, focusing particularly on Brazil and Angola, and 802 pamphlets from Duke University, which add to the 826 pamphlets that were included in the first release of material in May 2007.

These pamphlets mainly relate to the slavery and abolition debate in nineteenth century USA and will be a great addition to the resource. February will also see the upload of an essay by Professor Kevin Bales, (President, Free the Slaves) on Slavery in the 21st Century. This essay addresses the important issue of contemporary slavery and highlights the fact that slavery is a continuing problem.

 

Virginia Company Archives Now Available!   09/01/2008

An essential source for the study of the Atlantic World and Early Colonial Period, Virginia Company Archives documents the founding and economic development of Virginia as seen through the papers of the Virginia Company of London, 1606-1624.

Providing a rich source for the study of trade between Britain and America, there is also valuable evidence on the ethnic and gender composition of Virginia and new evidence of tensions amongst the colonists and of early relations with Native Americans. It is also a crucial source for London’s economic history and will be welcomed by religious and social historians of Early Modern England.

The project is made up of four constituent parts:

• Previously unpublished transcripts by Dr David Ransome of over 500 documents from the Virginia Company Archives. These will be fully searchable and are linked to the original manuscripts.

• A fully searchable text of The Records of the Virginia Company of London (4 volumes, Washington DC, Government Printing Office, 1906-1933).

• The complete Ferrar Papers from Magdelene College, Cambridge, together with a fully searchable listing linked directly to the manuscripts.

• An extensive contextual introduction to the Ferrar papers, maps, illustrations and other works.

Transforming the way that we look at the early modern period of colonial U.S. history, Virginia Company Archives is an invaluable resource for social, political and economic studies.

For a free, four-week trial of this outstanding resource, please see our online trials page to register.

 

Launch of Medieval Travel Writing Online   14/11/07

Medieval Travel Writing Online – a priceless resource for understanding medieval attitudes to space and time, to people and places near and far from home
(Professor M. Alison Stones,
Department of History, University of Pittsburgh).

The release of this magnificent collection of medieval manuscripts from libraries across Europe, and dating from the 13th to 16th centuries, has been keenly awaited by scholars and students.

Designed for anyone interested in or teaching courses related to early travel writing, pre-modern concepts of the Earth, or the Medieval World view, this beautiful new resource brings together:

  • Original manuscripts from 25 libraries across Europe

  • Hundreds of colour illustrations and maps; conveniently accessible for classroom use with our bespoke online slideshow

  • Detailed meta-data on all the original manuscripts and fully searchable transcriptions of the supporting literature.

The project provides an extensive collection of manuscript materials for the study of medieval travel writing in fact and in fantasy, and features authors such as: Prester John, John of Plano Carpini, Ascelin, William of Rubruck, Marco Polo, Ricoldo de Montecroce, Oderic of Pordenone, Sir John Mandeville and John Capgrave to mention but a few. A good number of manuscripts images are provided in full colour, and original documents are in a range of languages, including French, Latin, German, Spanish, Dutch and English.

As with all Adam Matthew Digital resources:

Leading scholars have suggested pathways through the material and covered some of the key topics in the resource in our Consultant Editor essays.

External links to approved scholarly sites are provided to ensure a broad-range of material is accessible within the one resource.

An interactive chronology and detailed bibliography ensure that students and scholars researching materials have comparative history and research information at their fingertips.

Medieval Travel Writing Online will enrich the experience of all those exploring topics such as the nature of pilgrimage, the origins of global trade, travels to the Holy Land, the Silk Road, and the representation of the ‘East’ and the ‘Other’ in the Middle Ages.

Free, four-week trials are available to all librarians, faculty and staff. Please click here to register for a trial of Medieval Travel Writing Online, or any other of our digital resources.

 

China: Trade, Politics and Culture, 1793-1980, Online Released!   15/10/07

Adam Matthew Digital is delighted to announce the release of China: Trade, Politics and Culture, 1793-1980, Online.  This project answers the need for clear, intelligible and informative English-language sources relating to China and the West from 1793 to 1980.

Based on substantial collections of unique manuscript materials held at the library of the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and the British Library in London, and supplemented by additional sources from Cambridge University Library; the CMS Archives; the Council for World Missions; Duke University; the National Archives, Kew and the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand; this project provides a wide variety of original source material detailing China’s interaction with the West from Macartney’s first Embassy to China in 1793, through to the Richard Nixon and Edward Heath visits to China in 1972-74.

China: Trade, Politics and Culture, 1793-1980, Online provides multiple perspectives – from politicians, diplomats, missionaries, business people and tourists, and documents many of the key events that happened in this period, including: 

  • the 1792-1794 Macartney Embassy
  • the 1816 Amherst Embassy
  • the settling of Penang
  • the Opium Wars
  • the opening of Hong Kong
  • the Taiping Rebellion
  • Missions in China, 1869-1970
  • the Japanese seizure of Taiwan
  • the 'opening of Korea'
  • the Sino-French and territorial struggles with Germany, Britain, America and Japan
  • the Boxer War
  • the Russo-Japanese war
  • the 1911 Revolution
  • the Republican and Nationalist governments of Sun Yat sen and Jiang Jieshi
  • the Warlord period
  • the Sino-Japanese war
  • the Rape of Nanjing
  • the Communist Revolution led by Mao
  • the Korean War
  • the Great Leap Forward
  • the 1972 Nixon visit to China
  • Rolls-Royce's negotiations regarding the delivery of jet engines to China, 1973-1975
  • the Douglas-Home and Heath visits to China, 1973-74

China: Trade, Politics and Culture, 1793-1980, Online benefits from an impressive collection of images that will add new depths to teaching and research by offering a striking visual accompaniment to the written documents, including:

  • richly coloured and detailed illustrations capturing the sights and events of the Macartney embassy
  • drawings of Chinese life and work by Chinese artists
  • photographs documenting the aftermath of the battle at the Dagu Forts
  • zoomable colour maps
  • detailed representations of Chinese homes, temples and furnishings

Our custom-built slideshow allows both browsing and searching of the illustrations, paintings, photographs, maps and sketches within the collection, with a clear large-screen viewer for detailed examination of each image.

This project links closely with – but does not duplicate - China Through Western Eyes, a landmark project published in microfilm by Adam Matthew Publications from 1997 onwards, which made available key sources describing the experiences of Westerners in China from the first British mission to China in 1792-1794 through to the mid 20th century.

Free, four-week trials are available by completing the registration form. Further details are available here , or by contacting us for more information.

 

Empire Online MARC 21 Records Complete!   20/09/2007

Free to download MARC 21 catalogue records are now available for all five sections of Empire Online. Please follow the simple instructions on the MARC records page to download the files to your library catalogue system.

 

Adam Matthew Digital Web-Stats Provided by Google Analytics   03/08/2007

Adam Matthew Digital has adopted the latest technology offered by Google to provide detailed user stats for its customers.

Google Analytics will enable all users of Adam Matthew’s extensive digital portfolio to manage their own personal account. Once activated administrators will have a plethora of options ranging from the basics, detailing number of visits, to more in-depth analysis such as how long users spend on the site, the busiest times of the day and the most popular searches. An outstanding feature of the technology is its ability to generate automatic PDF, CSV, XML or TSV reports, and have these emailed directly to colleagues on a daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly basis.

For any customers who want to activate this new feature, please email info@amdigital.co.uk  for further details on setting up a Google Analytics account.

 

Section V Completes Defining Gender Online!   01/08/2007

'The Body' the final Section of one of our most popular digital collections - Defining Gender, 1450-1910 - is now available.

Essays, such as Gender and the Body, c1830-1910 (Professor Jeanne Peterson, Indiana University); Art and the Body (Dr Rosemary Betterton, Lancaster University) and Gender, Midwifery and the Body in the Early Modern Period (Dr Elizabeth D. Harvey, University of Toronto), further enhance this collection and make it an exceptional resource for the study of history, literature, sociology, gender studies, women’s studies and religious and cultural studies.

Dr Christopher E. Forth, Department of History, Australian National University comments:

"By making available a range of rare printed and important manuscript texts on many aspects of gender, sexuality and culture, the Defining Gender collection is an exciting and, for many, indispensable resource for undergraduate and advanced research into British culture and society. I recommend it highly."

Section V of Defining Gender includes:

  • Contextual essays to help evaluate gendered perceptions of the body
  • Various medical writings, including a strong core of works on anatomy and midwifery with hundreds of illustrations, Government papers from the Home Office and Metropolitan Police, Images of original art, including engravings and portraits, travel writing, medical and other periodicals, receipt books, works relating to sexuality, fiction and verse, works on the concept of beauty, literary manuscripts, diaries and conduct books.
  • Changing views and ideas about the body in literature and history
  • Gender issues in relation to medicine and anatomy, midwifery, different parts of the body, beauty, sexuality, prostitution, appearance and fashion.

 

New Portal Enables Seamless Integration Between Eighteenth Century Journals I and II Online!   24/07/2007

Enhanced features provided within the recently published Eighteenth Century Journals Online Portal, enable subscribing institutions to view both online resources within one, user-interface. Editor, Martha Fogg, lists the new additions:

"Aside from the portal functionality and the new-look front end, there are a number of adjustments/improvements on the original Eighteenth Century Journals II site to look out for:

1. Citations. These are given at the bottom of the image view, before the copyright notice, in the format TITLE – DATE – ISSUE. This allows users to easily find out where they are when browsing or searching a document. There will be information in the Help Section for users on how to use this reference correctly in citations following the MHRA or MLA style guide.

2. Drop down issue/page numbers. This is a new feature which allows users not only to select a page from the drop down menu, but also an issue (which takes them to the first page of that particular issue). It saves users having to use the ‘next issue’ button to browse to an issue which may be several months on. As in other Adam Matthew Digital resources, pages without numbers are listed as ‘unpaginated images’.

3. 'Within document' searching. There is a box in the left hand navigation bar in the image viewer which allows users to search within a document while looking at it. Once a search is performed, the image view switches to the first highlighted transcript page. Users can then click through the hits, do a new search, or return to image view and continue to browse. Returning to the document details page clears the search.

4. Email results. Users can email their search results with the search terms as the subject line.

5. Search results for entire portal. When users with access to only one of the two available resources perform searches, they are presented with a list of results from the entire portal, but content from the non-subscribed section is greyed out.

6. PDF download options from document details page. Users can now download a page or issue range or the entire document (e.g all issues for that title)."

The release of this fantastic new Portal offers students and scholars of the eighteenth century an opportunity to examine a variety of topical issues, and to compare a range of perspectives on the debates of the day. Accessible and easy to use, it will prove an invaluable addition to any library supporting studies of the eighteenth century.

Please contact us if you are interested in adding Eighteenth Century Journals I or Eighteenth Century Journals II to your digital portfolio.

 
  Telephone: +44 (0) 1672 511921   Email: info@amdigital.co.uk