Dear List,
I am forwarding this email on behalf of Paul Sillitoe, LUCAS, University of
Liverpool:
Industrial archaeologists are invited to help make technical drawings more
understandable for researchers working between the archaeological -
historical disciplines. Paul Sillitoe's doctoral research is investigating
ways to bring technical drawings out of the archival shadows, and into the
research limelight. Involving research users of technical drawings is key to
ensuring that it addresses their real needs. Based at Liverpool University
Centre for Archive Studies, his PhD is funded by the Arts and Humanities
Research Council.
Technical drawings graphically represent engineering and manufacturing
designs better than any textual description. These potent instruments of
power and innovative thought depict progress, process and product across
British industry. The new railway workshops stimulated drawings' development
from the 1830s, in vast Drawing Offices. Their prodigious output was
redoubled with the advent of new reprographic techniques from the 1870s.
Paul's research spans this period, up to the 1980s, when computer-generated
drawing increasingly replaced hand drafting.
Today, technical drawings have research values for industrial archaeology,
heritage conservation and restoration projects, as well as academic and
enthusiast study. Yet they are much less likely than textual records to be
selected as archives, or be adequately catalogued for researchers. To some
archivists, they perhaps represent one of the more challenging record types.
Paul's research will develop new methods to make technical drawings more
understandable for archivists. This will better enable them to select and
catalogue appropriate records, and make them more accessible for research.
Paul now needs to know what sorts of technical drawings are of most interest
to researchers, and what information they want to find from them.
Industrial archaeologists are very welcome to collaborate with this
inter-disciplinary research. You are invited to help identify key issues,
comment on research methodologies and findings, and to critically assess the
project's outputs. If you would like to be part of the consultation process,
or just receive further information, please contact
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