Early Modern Manuscripts Online (EMMO)

Early Modern Manuscripts Online, or EMMO, is a multi-faceted project funded by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) that will provide scholars and the general public with convenient web access to transcriptions, images, and metadata for a substantial number of English manuscripts from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

The EMMO project will make a variety of rare manuscripts from the Folger Shakespeare Library’s premier collection available to users for free via an easy, searchable web site with high-quality images and consistent transcriptions of letters, diaries, wills, coats of arms, literary pieces, recipe books, miscellanies, and more. This combination of resources will enhance research in many disciplines by removing barriers to the rich content of manuscripts, such as: location, early handwriting, and the current inability to search manuscript texts online. At the same time, EMMO will also promote the learning of paleography (the study of pre-modern handwriting methods) through events such as conferences, classes, and online tutorials so users may attain the skills necessary to understand and appreciate these manuscripts in their original form.

The project will advance in phases, so by the end of the three years that are currently funded, the following will be complete:

Phase 1: Create and prepare transcriptions

Phase 2: Develop an optimized, searchable database

Phase 3: Design online tutorials

Phase 4: Roll out shareable software

Educational events highlighting paleography and scholarly research regarding the study of manuscripts will take place throughout all of the above phases and continue beyond these early stages of the project.

Events and presentations

Various events are planned to promote EMMO and its various offerings over the next three years; all of these will encourage discussion of current and potential research projects in paleography and crowdsourcing. A cursory list is below. Check back for updates and additions as the project progresses.

June 2014: English Paleography: A Mellon Summer 2014 Institute (at the Folger Shakespeare Library), led by Dr. Heather Wolfe; participants from a number of universities attended this month-long intensive training program in order to learn and enhance their paleography skills. Transcriptions made during the institute were contributed to the transcriptions, tags, and glosses that will ultimately appear in EMMO.
November 2014 - September 2015: Practical Paleography, the first of an informal series of sessions meeting for one hour every other week to learn paleography skills and transcribe a manuscript page or two, open to readers and staff of the Folger Shakespeare Library. Folger staff leading the sessions: Heather Wolfe, Paul Dingman, Sarah Powell.
December 4, 2014: Transcribe the Renaissance, a noon-to-midnight "transcribathon" in conjunction with the Kislak Center to be held at the University of Pennsylvania. Folger staff attending to lead and support the transcribathon: Heather Wolfe, Paul Dingman, Michael Poston, Sarah Powell, Elizabeth Tobey.
December 8-12, 2014: Advanced Early Modern English Paleography, a week-long advanced workshop led by Dr. Heather Wolfe on paleography in conjunction with the Folger Institute and members of the EMMO team.
March 18, 2015: Transcribathon at UVa in conjunction with the Rare Book School at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville. Folger staff attending to lead and support the transcribathon: Heather Wolfe, Paul Dingman, Michael Poston, Sarah Powell.
March 26, 2015: Roundtable discussion, Adventures in Crowdsourcing for the Humanities, Renaissance Society of America annual meeting, Berlin, Germany. Folger staff presenting: Heather Wolfe.
May 2015 - September 2015: Practical Paleography, the second of an informal series of sessions meeting for one hour every other week to transcribe a manuscript page or two, open to readers and staff of the Folger Shakespeare Library. Folger staff leading the sessions: Heather Wolfe, Paul Dingman, Sarah Powell.
May 19, 2015: Transcription Night, 5:30-8:30 PM, at the Big Board on H Street. Folger staff attending to lead and support the transcribathon: Heather Wolfe, Paul Dingman, Sarah Powell.
May 18-22 2015. Week-long workshop (at the Folger Shakespeare Library) led by Dr Heather Wolfe; participants from a number of universities attended this week-long program in order to learn and enhance their paleography skills. The workshop was part of the Folger Institute Scholarly programs, supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
July 2, 2015: Panel presentation, "Crowdsourcing the Text: Contemporary Approaches to Participatory Resource Creation," Global Digital Humanities annual conference, Sydney, Australia. Folger staff presenting: Heather Wolfe.
July 24, 2015: Presentation in Showcase of Digital Projects, Early Modern Manuscripts Online, Keystone Digital Humanities Conference, Kislak Center for Special Collections, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA. Folger staff presenting: Paul Dingman.
October 7, 2015: Transcribathon in conjunction with the Early Modern Recipes Online Collective (EMROC) at the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC. Folger staff attending to lead and support the transcribathon: Heather Wolfe, Paul Dingman, Michael Poston, Sarah Powell, Elizabeth Tobey.
October 2015 - March 2016: Practical Paleography, the third of an informal series of sessions meeting for one hour every other week to transcribe a manuscript page or two, open to readers and staff of the Folger Shakespeare Library. Folger staff leading sessions: Paul Dingman, Sarah Powell.
October 24, 2015: Transcribathon in conjunction with the Institute for the Humanities at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI. Folger staff attending to lead and support the transcribathon: Paul Dingman.
November 13, 2015: Transcribathon in conjunction with the Humanities Center, VCU Libraries and VCU department of English at the University of Virginia Commonwealth, Richmond, VA. Folger staff attending to lead and support the transcribathon: Heather Wolfe, Paul Dingman, Michael Poston, Sarah Powell.
December 10: Launch of Shakespeare's World, a collaboration between the Folger Shakespeare Library, the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) and Zooniverse.
December 14-18, 2015: Advanced Early Modern English Paleography, a week-long advanced workshop on paleography led by Dr. Heather Wolfe in conjunction with the Folger Institute and the EMMO team.
December 15, 2015: Transcription Night, 5:30-7:30 PM, at the Big Board on H Street. Folger staff attending to lead and support the transcribathon: Heather Wolfe, Paul Dingman, Sarah Powell.
Spring 2016: presentations at various academic annual conferences (e.g., Renaissance Society of America, Modern Language Association, Shakespeare Association of America). Folger staff attending to present at these conferences: Heather Wolfe, Paul Dingman, Michael Poston.
March 30, 2016: Early Modern Digital Pedagogies, a half-day workshop on digital humanities pedagogy, offered by EMMO in conjunction with the Women Writers Project at Northeastern University, Boston, MA. Folger staff attending to present at the workshop: Heather Wolfe and Paul Dingman.
April 6-8, 2016: Presentation in workshop sponsored by MEDEA at Wheaton College, Norton, MA. Folger staff attending to present at the workshop: Paul Dingman.
April 14-15, 2016: Presentation in workshop on Transcription Projects and crowdsourcing with Shakespeare's World at the Library of Congress, Washington DC, for DPLAfest. In collaboration with the [National Archives] & the [Smithsonian Transcription Center]. Folger staff presenting: Sarah Powell.
April 17, 2016: Transcribathon in conjunction with the Irvin Department of Rare Books and Special Collections at the University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC. Folger staff attending to lead and support the transcribathon: Paul Dingman.
June 6-10, 2016. Week-long workshop (at the Folger Shakespeare Library) led by Dr Heather Wolfe; participants from a number of universities attended this week-long program in order to learn and enhance their paleography skills. The workshop was part of the Folger Institute Scholarly programs, supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
June 7, 2016: Transcription Night, 5:30-7:30 PM, at the Big Board on H Street. Folger staff attending to lead and support the transcribathon: Heather Wolfe, Sarah Powell.
July 2016: English Paleography: Summer Institute (at The Huntington Library), led by Dr. Heather Wolfe; participants from a number of universities will attend this month-long intensive training program in order to learn and enhance their paleography skills.
September 14, 2016: Transcribathon, in association with The University of Connecticut Humanities Institute. From 10 am – 4 pm in the Great Hall of the Alumni Center, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT. Folger staff attending to lead and support the transcribathon: Paul Dingman.
October 3-4, 2016: Presentation for the Linguistic Data Consortium (LDC) Workshop on Crowdsourcing and Novel Incentives in Language Resource Creation at the University of Pennsylvania. Folger staff attending to present at the workshop: Paul Dingman.
October 2016 - April 2017: Practical Paleography, the fourth of an informal series of sessions meeting for one hour every other week to transcribe a manuscript page or two, open to readers and staff of the Folger Shakespeare Library. Folger staff leading sessions: Heather Wolfe, Sarah Powell.
November 9, 2016: Transcribathon in conjunction with the Early Modern Recipes Online Collective (EMROC) at the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC. Folger staff attending to lead and support the transcribathon: Heather Wolfe, Sarah Powell.
December 5-9, 2016: Introduction to English Paleography, a week-long advanced workshop on paleography in conjunction with the Folger Institute.
December 6, 2016: "Brews and Brevigraphs" held at the Folger Library. This will be a joint event between Introduction to English Paleography & the EMMO's Practical Paleography sessions. Folger staff attending to lead and support the transcribathon: Heather Wolfe, Sarah Powell.
January 9, 2017: Beta launch of EMMO, a web site for the Early Modern Manuscripts Online project that provides free access to transcriptions, metadata, and images of manuscripts. Users may browse the corpus and/or search the full text of the transcriptions. Resources such as the EMMO tag set, editorial conventions, and a blog are also included on the site.
March 8, 2017: Transcribathon in association with Wellesley College, Massachusetts. From 12.30pm - 5.30pm in the Pendleton Knapp Atrium. Folger staff attending to lead and support the transcribathon: Heather Wolfe, Paul Dingman.
April 7, 2017: Second transcribathon held in conjunction with the Humanities Center, VCU Libraries and VCU department of English at the University of Virginia Commonwealth, Richmond, VA. Folger staff attending to lead and support the transcribathon: Heather Wolfe, Sarah Powell, and Helen Newsome.
April 17, 2017: Second transcribathon, in association with The University of Connecticut Humanities Institute. From 4 pm – 7 pm in the Homer D. Babbidge Library, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT. Folger staff attending to lead and support the transcribathon: Paul Dingman.
May 18-19, 2017 : EMMO conference hosted at the Folger by the Folger Institute, the schedule for the conference is here: Early Modern Manuscripts Online: New Directions in Teaching and Research.

Paleography and transcriptions

The majority of manuscripts written in English during the period stretching from 1500-1700 were written in what has come to be known as secretary hand, a mode of handwriting that most people today cannot read accurately without advanced training in paleography. Since transcriptions customarily serve as the bridge between secretary hand and our present-day typefaces, EMMO will provide searchable transcriptions for ease of use. However, EMMO will also give users the opportunity to learn about paleography and make their own transcriptions.

As more scholars—or anyone interested in the early modern period—engage with the manuscripts directly, intriguing questions about and investigations into language, history, and culture will undoubtedly emerge. Software tools are under development by Folger staff to assist users in the learning process.

Through a combination of methods that includes gathering existing edited and published transcriptions, producing transcriptions at the Folger, organizing special events such as transcribathons, and encouraging robust online crowdsourcing efforts, EMMO will create a body of transcriptions that are then vetted for accuracy and consistency, and published online for study.

The viewable transcriptions in EMMO’s approved collection will follow established conventions of semi-diplomatic transcription i.e., minor alterations will be made in the transcribed text. These changes enhance clarity and facilitate reading for a twenty-first century audience, for example archaic letters such as a thorn (looks like "y") would be updated to th. It is important to remember that the transcriptions in EMMO—as is the case with all transcriptions—are simply useful depictions of what appears on the actual, physical manuscripts. However, the high-quality images that accompany each semi-diplomatic transcription in EMMO will give users a good sense of the original, and comparing the two onscreen constitutes a learning experience of its own.

Text encoding

In addition to transcribing the text of manuscripts, EMMO will encode the transcriptions for proper digital representation online, using tags in XML that adhere to TEI P5 guidelines, thereby giving the digital transcriptions an appropriate and consistent look as well as streamlining them for quick computer searches and analysis. More advanced encoding to add glosses on the text or highlight items for debate may be done in later stages of EMMO or as part of specific research or learning initiatives in the future.

EMMO web site (beta)

In early January, 2017, the EMMO project launched a beta web site with its first batch of encoded transcriptions: emmo.folger.edu. The site has three versions of each transcription (diplomatic, semi-diplomatic, and regularized) along with associated metadata and high-resolution images of the manuscript pages offered via a IIIF viewer. The full text of the transcriptions is available for searches. A limited number of manuscript letters comprise this first batch, though more will be added as the project moves forward as well as manuscripts from other genres.

Staffing and structure

Initial funding for EMMO comes from a three-year grant by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS); the project will run from 2014 through early 2017 in its early phases. This broad venture will draw upon the expertise of staff members across several divisions at the Library, including personnel from Central Library, Digital Media and Publications, and Folger Institute.

Key staff at Folger Shakespeare Library involved in EMMO:

Eric Johnson, Director of Digital Access (Project Director)

Heather Wolfe, Curator of Manuscripts (Primary Investigator)

Michael Poston, Data Architect

Kathleen Lynch, Executive Director, Folger Institute

Owen Williams, Assistant Director for Scholarly Programs, Folger Institute

Elyse Martin, Program Assistant for Scholarly Programs, Folger Institute

Julie Ainsworth, Head of Photography and Digital Imaging

Melanie Leung, Image Request Coordinator

Denny Henry, Photography and Digital Imaging Assistant

Renate Mesmer, J. Franklin Mowery Head of Conservation

Erin Blake, Head of Collection Information Services

Emily Wahl, Metadata Specialist

IMLS grant-funded, dedicated staff hired by Folger:

Paul Dingman, EMMO Project Manager

Sarah Powell, EMMO Project Paleographer

EMMO also has a highly-respected external advisory group whose guidance and assistance will be of immense help in achieving the project’s goals:

Julia Flanders, Northeastern University

Neil Fraistat, University of Maryland

Alan Galey, University of Toronto

James Ginther, Toronto School of Theology

Ben Vershbow, Independent Digital Library Strategist

Peter Stallybrass, University of Pennsylvania

Alan Stewart, Columbia University

Kathryn James, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University

Elizabeth O’Keefe, The Morgan Library and Museum (retired)

The online tools and scholarly programs of EMMO will serve as important resources for students, teachers, and researchers in a host of fields. By expanding the study of paleography and manuscripts, our understanding of the early modern period will deepen. Assumptions about the literary record will be challenged; new questions will be asked and new answers found.