A Folger Orientation to Research Methods and Agendas
Weeklong Intensive Skills Course
Directed by Caroline Duroselle-Melish, Kathleen Lynch, and Owen Williams
In the promotional blurb for this immersive workshop, we described a goal of developing a set of research-oriented literacies through an exploration of the Folger’s collections of early modern materials. We promised examinations of bibliographical tools and their logics, opportunities to hone early modern book description skills, and improve your understanding of the cultural and technological histories of texts. Through a mix of moderated discussions, small group work and individual work with items in the collection, we will be prompting reflexive questions about the nature of primary sources from this period, the collections that house them, the tools whereby one can access them, and the kinds of research projects for which they provide evidence. On Friday morning, in small group reports, you will present the kinds of things you found interesting during the course of the week and explain how you would take next steps in investigating them. Also, each individual will describe how he or she will apply what was learned in their own work.
Materials Examined by Program Participants
Items examined as part of the "Speed Dating" Exercise
Schedule
Monday, 23 May
8:45-9:30
Gather for coffee and donuts (Founders Room)
9:30-11
Rare Materials "Speed Dating" (Board Room)
11-noon
Discussion, formulating initial questions (BR)
Noon-1
Lunch (FR) and Readers Card Processing (Registrar’s Desk)
1-3
Orientation to Hamnet and introduction to rare-materials search strategies (BR) [Submit page slips for one book and one manuscript from your pre-arrival Hamnet exercise (Library)]
3-3:30
Folger Tea (TR)
3:30-4:30
Handling Rare Materials and Navigating the Folger (meet in BR, proceed to Reading Room)
4:30-6
Happy Hour (Capitol Lounge)
Homework: Beal, Maguire, McKenzie
On papermaking: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-PmfdV_cZU
On printmaking techniques: http://www.graphicsatlas.org/ & http://mantis.risdmuseum.org/Brilliant-Line/
Tuesday, 24 May
9-10
Convene in Small Groups. Rare materials paged on Monday to be delivered by support staff.
• What questions are coalescing around the readings, your research interests, and the materials?
10:15-11:45
Introduction to Printing Practice (BR)
•Setting type/Presswork
•Papermaking
11:45-1:30
Lunch and Reading Room work (on your own)
1:30-3
Paleography and Scribal Culture (BR)
3-3:30
Folger Tea (TR)
3:30-4:30
Presentations by Tom Fulton, long-term NEH-Folger fellow (BR)
Homework: review Landau and Parshall; read Folgerpedia articles on EEBO: http://folgerpedia.folger.edu/History_of_Early_English_Books_Online and http://folgerpedia.folger.edu/Using_Early_English_Books_Online
Wednesday, 25 May
8:45-10:00
Convene in Small Groups with rare materials and EEBO, ESTC exercises Find your book in EEBO, ESTC, other editions, within other bindings. What are the effects of mediation?
Begin to develop research strands to pursue, based on, for example:
•Other titles by author
•Similar items in genre
•Products of the same printers or publishers
•Items in the same collection
10:00-1:30
Work in Reading Room on your own; lunch on your own
1:30-3
Images and Visual Culture (BR)
• Illustrated folios
• Woodcuts vs. Engravings
•Early Modern graphic works
3-3:30
Folger Tea (TR) 3:30-4:30
Convene with Small Groups to sharpen questions, follow up on implications, and begin planning presentations for Friday morning
Homework: Bowers & Carter on collation and your choice of readings from the Dropbox Course Library, your own selections through the Hamnet exercise, and other resources like the Collation, exhibition catalogues, Folgerpedia articles.
Thursday, 26 May
8:45-10:15
Deeper dive into book manufacture, processes in printing house (BR)
• Collation formulae, books formats
•Are we looking to describe the object or to address sociological, economic, or political issues?
•Discussion on how to find more information on early modern people (ODNB, Hamnet notes, STC/Wing indices)
10-noon
Small Group work to finalize Friday presentations Noon-1:00
Fellows Roundtable: Editing Early Modern Texts with Elaine Hobby, Claire Bowditch, and Jason Powell (FCR)
1:00-3:00
Time in Reading Room
3-3:30
Folger Tea (TR) 3:30-4:30
Final Small Group work to finalize Friday presentations
Friday, 27 May
9:00-9:30
Setting Type Experiment (TR)
9:30-noon
Presentations (45 minutes per group)
We expect each group to present the kinds of things you found interesting during the course of the week and explain how you would take next steps in investigating them. Also, each individual will describe how he or she will apply what was learned in their own work. Noon-4:30
Free time in Library 4:30-6
Closing Reception (FR)