Probing a time warp – 'Beyond Notability' brushes the dust from women’s contributions to archaeology, history and heritage

Friday 29 October 2021

It took the Society of Antiquaries of London more than 200 years to formally admit women to its fellowship when in June 1920, its council invited archaeologist Eugénie Sellers Strong and the historian Rose Graham to become fellows. It was a welcome advance in recognising women’s contributions to the fields of archaeology, history and heritage, but not the whole story.

Women’s work had been recorded in the Society’s archives since the 18th century, and by the late 19th century, they were able to study archaeology and history at university and join local archaeological and historical societies in Britain. But what did that mean in human terms? What did they contribute? And how was that represented in the archives? How can women’s work be revealed in ways that ensure discoverability, accessibility, inclusivity, and encourage the creation of truly compelling, challenging and richly detailed stories about their contributions?

These are some of the questions Beyond Notability, a three-year £929,729 research project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, will be tackling. Led by the Institute of Classical Studies (ICS) at the University of London’s School of Advanced Study, in partnership with the Society of Antiquaries of London (SAL) and University of Southampton Digital Humanities, it will bring together academic researchers with expertise in intellectual and social history, information science and digital humanities to explore the history of women in archaeology, history and heritage in Britain.

‘We aim to write new chapters in the history of archaeology and heritage work in Britain by unlocking the treasures of archives, and also demonstrate the potential of digital methods to enrich history’ says Professor Katherine Harloe, director of the Institute of Classical Studies and the project’s principal investigator

Using the Society of Antiquaries of London archives and those of the Royal Archaeological Institute, Beyond Notability will create an unprecedented openly accessible research data set of women active in archaeology, history and heritage in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Creating a bespoke language to represent the diversity of activities conducted by these women, it will tell their stories and map them using linked open data, ensuring the information is discoverable and accessible through Wikipedia.

Beyond Notability will also set the lives that emerge from the archive into a wider context. Only two years before Strong and Graham were nominated, a portion of British women had at last secured the right to vote.

‘We will examine women’s educational pathways into archaeology, history and heritage, how these women engaged with suffrage, how war and empire shaped their personal and professional lives, and how they developed formal or informal careers in the field,’ explains Dr Amara Thornton, ICS research fellow and project co-investigator.

‘Through this contextual work, we will scale up our research database by making links to relevant archives and sources beyond the Society of Antiquaries, adding further detail to their stories with these related collections.’

In writing inclusivity, discoverability, and accessibility into the framework of this project, the Beyond Notability team will produce a range of outputs targeted at academic and independent researchers, digital content producers, cultural heritage professionals and visitors to museums and heritage sites. And to encourage interaction and build user feedback into the development of the data set, they will release curated information as the project evolves.

As Dr James Baker, director of Digital Humanities at the University of Southampton and project co-investigator, says ‘building and iterating a data set in public from day one, rather than – say – publishing a finished data set towards the end of project, is central to our intellectual agenda: to show and document our labour, to position ourselves within the histories we are investigating, and to enable community scrutiny of and interaction with the data and infrastructures we produce.’

‘We’re all familiar with the idea that “you can’t be what you can’t see” – representation matters in intellectual and public life,’ adds Professor Harloe. ‘The same is true of history – though there’s a long history of women interacting with cultural and heritage material, their work and contributions have all too often rested in obscurity. Our project will bring new stories to light and explore the social and cultural factors that have kept these women hidden for so long.’

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Notes for Editors

1. For all enquiries, please contact Maureen McTaggart, media communications manager, University of London, Maureen.McTaggart@sas.ac.uk.
    
2. The Institute of Classical Studies, founded in 1953, is a national and international research centre for the study of the languages, literature, history, art, archaeology and philosophy of the ancient Greek and Roman worlds. It provides an internationally renowned research library available to scholars from universities throughout the world, in association with the Hellenic and Roman Societies, and is the meeting place of the main Classics organisations in the UK. It is a member institute of the School of Advanced Study, University of London. Learn more at www.ics.sas.ac.uk.
    
3. The School of Advanced Study (SAS), University of London, is the UK’s national centre for the promotion and support of research in the humanities. SAS and its member institutes offer unparalleled resources, facilities and academic opportunities across a wide range of subject areas for the benefit of the national and international scholarly community. Last year SAS welcomed 996 research fellows and associates, held 1,500 events highlighting the latest research in the humanities, received 31.6 million online visits to its research resources and platforms, and hosted 100,119 visits to its specialist libraries and collections. The School also leads Being Human, the UK’s only nationwide festival of the humanities. Find out more at www.sas.ac.uk or follow SAS on Twitter at @SASNews.
    
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5. The University of Southampton drives original thinking, turns knowledge into action and impact, and creates solutions to the world’s challenges. We are among the top 100 institutions globally (QS World University Rankings 2022). Our academics are leaders in their fields, forging links with high-profile international businesses and organisations, and inspiring a 22,000-strong community of exceptional students, from over 135 countries worldwide. Through our high-quality education, the University helps students on a journey of discovery to realise their potential and join our global network of over 200,000 alumni. www.southampton.ac.uk