The Hamilton Inventories Project Celia Curnow Project
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Date submitted: 25/07/2009 The Virtual Reconstruction of Lost Heritage: The Hamilton Inventories Project Celia Curnow Project Editor, Hamilton Inventories Project Edinburgh, Scotland, UK Professor Bruce Royan Director, Virtual Hamilton Palace Trust Edinburgh, Scotland, UK Meeting: 201. Art Libraries WORLD LIBRARY AND INFORMATION CONGRESS: 75TH IFLA GENERAL CONFERENCE AND COUNCIL 23-27 August 2009, Milan, Italy http://www.ifla.org/annual-conference/ifla75/index.htm Abstract This paper describes an innovative project to reconstruct, from the resources of libraries, museums and archives worldwide, one of the finest historical private collections ever to be assembled in Europe. The Virtual Hamilton Palace Trust was set up to recreate, on the Web, a lost Ducal Palace and its spectacular collections of fine and decorative art, which have been scattered throughout the world. The prototype of this project is described with illustrations. It has recently undergone a comprehensive evaluation by researchers and prospective users, and this paper discusses why and how that was carried out, and what conclusions were reached. The Hamilton collections The Dukes of Hamilton were spectacular collectors of fine and decorative art across some four centuries (Figure 1). Much of the collection was dispersed through a series of sales beginning in the late nineteenth century, and Hamilton Palace itself was demolished in the 1920’s. The current whereabouts of many fine pieces are not known: but there exist, in the family’s private papers, the local Public library, and elsewhere, an amazingly complete set of inventories and sale catalogues, going back to the early seventeenth century. The Virtual Hamilton Palace Trust The Virtual Hamilton Palace Trust (VHPT)1 was set up to reconstruct the Palace and its collections through a series of research projects utilising New Technology. The Trust is Chaired by the celebrated historian and biographer Dr Rosalind K. Marshall2, and its directors include Dr Godfrey H. Evans, Principal Curator of European Applied Art at National Museums Scotland; George P. Mackenzie, Director of the National Archives of Scotland; and Fraser Niven, CEO of Lennoxlove – the home of the current Duke of Hamilton. VHPT’s technology partner is the Scottish Cultural Resources Access Network (SCRAN)3 . With the collaboration of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS), VHPT produced a Pilot4 to demonstrate what might be possible, including simple Virtual Reality models of the lost Palace, based on the original architects' drawings (including those of William Adam c1730), 1920’s plans and photographs from the 19th century. (Figure 2). 2 The Hamilton Inventories Project The Trust has now embarked on making available online digitised versions of each of the historic Hamilton inventories, with clickable links (on a line by line basis) to literal transcripts and modernised versions of every item description. These then click through to digital images and full captions for every item identified. Each object record refers back in its turn to any other relevant inventories, so that researchers can trace that object’s provenance, any changes in physical location through the years, and eventually what happened to it once it left the family. At every point in the system, there is a sort of “moderated Wiki” facility, so that researchers can identify new objects, add further information, correct errors etc. (Figure 3). A worked example No doubt the first thing a user might want to do is a “Google” type of search on everything that has currently been loaded into the site, by typing whatever they want into the Search box on the top right-hand corner of the page). For example “Jacobite” will retrieve among other things, a view (attributed to Giuseppe Valeriani), of the Palazzo Muti, with Prince James Edward Stewart welcoming his younger son, Prince Henry, who has just been made Cardinal. Since this was 3 retained in the Duke of Hamilton's private collection until as recently as 2001, it would not have been visible if the user had been restricted to searching through the historic inventories and sale catalogues. Clicking on any one of the thumbnail images presented (Figure 4) gives access to more information about the object it represents. To get an idea of the mechanics of the inventories project, now click “Inventory Images” in the left-hand column. You will be presented with thumbnail images, in date order, of the Inventories which we are currently working on. Select an inventory you are interested in, and you will see a list of the pages from that inventory which have been scanned/transcribed (in the long run, we hope to have images and descriptions of every object listed in each inventory: at present, we list those objects we have already loaded, against the appropriate page number) (Figure 5). 4 Click on 1643 c. Paintings (M4/21). Select Page 10. Find the third line up from the bottom of the page, and click on it. A text box will open up at top of screen, displaying both a Literal and a Modernised transcript of the entry, ie "A litle pece w[i]th Lott [&] his 3 daughters"(Figure 6). Click on "View Object" to display the actual painting (Figure 7). 5 If you like, you could then scroll down to read a brief description and a list of other known mentions in the inventories (Figure 8) (you can click on some of these to display the appropriate scanned page). Alternatively, if you scroll down to the "Who:" section of the record details (figure 9), and click on "James 3rd Marquis and 1st Duke of Hamilton (Owner)" you will get 5 further paintings from his collection (Figure 10). Again, the Record also contains a bibliographic reference to a book about the Arnott collection, and by clicking on "Title" within this reference you can search the National Library of Scotland to find the shelfmark of the copy they have available (Figure 11). 6 We have chosen to include in this prototype a range of different kinds of "inventory", including letters, receipts, sale catalogues, and even David Teniers the younger's painting of the Gallery of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm c1651 (Figure 12). 7 If you select this, and then click on the painting on the top row centre left of the gallery wall, you will access the details of Giorgione's "Three Philosophers" (Figure 13), which is also listed in four other inventories. And so on… The evaluation Since the publication in 1988 of Don Norman’s seminal Psychology of Everyday Things5 it has been recognized that all systems design benefits from a human- centred approach, with the evaluation of usability at its heart. Throughout the 1990s, similar ideas were being applied to the design of cultural databases6 and museum websites7. Nowadays also, writers on cultural informatics continue to emphasize that well-formed practices of evaluation should be part of any digital design process throughout every stage, including on-going maintenance well after the initial project development8. Furthermore, a best practise for evaluation within the digital cultural sector is beginning to emerge9. In Scotland in 2005 the Scottish Museums Council published a user impact evaluation of digital projects in Scottish Museums10. The aim of this evaluation, 8 to gain an understanding of the users of electronic cultural resources, was part of the published strategy of the Scottish Museums Council11. The report identified best practice in Scottish collection digitisation projects, and shed some light on how audiences view the resulting services. Not surprisingly, its key recommendation emphasised the importance of testing, monitoring and proper evaluation of the museum digital project in an iterative manner, at every stage and right from the outset. Another imperative that emerged was that of clearly defining user groups and their likely objectives. It is against the background of these publications and their findings that evaluation was seen by the Virtual Hamilton Trust’s Board of Directors as an integrated part of the development cycle of the Inventories Project with a central role to play. The Prototype and its evaluators This prototype has been developed over the past two years. A smaller version of the prototype which included seven inventories and related material was unveiled in August 2006 as part of the exhibition Treasures of Lennoxlove12, held at the Edinburgh auction house Lyon and Turnbull. Since then another six items in the form of bills, other inventories, photographs and letters have been added to the original seven inventories. Thirteen potential users participated in this evaluation. However, 2 users completed the evaluation together, and have been counted as a single user as their responses were for the most part similar. It was important that there was a balance of participants between those from the commercial world, those from academia and those from the art gallery and museum world. Those selected included two art dealers, three curators, five academics, a librarian, a digital project director, and an architectural historian. The users were considered to represent a variety of typical potential users who work in research communities and who had, above all, some hands-on experience of using this sort of archive. Users were interviewed and recorded digitally at their place of work using their own PCs and laptops. They were reassured at the outset of the interview that they were testing the system and that the system was not testing them. The interview was semi-structured. At the end of the interview additional structured questions in a questionnaire were asked, to obtain information about the interviewees and their use of the Hamilton and other archives. Each interviewee followed the same instructions given in the same order. 9 Methodology and Aims of the evaluation The broad aim of the Inventories Project is to link users interactively via the historical inventories, correspondence and bills in the Hamilton archives, in order to trace artefacts that were formerly in the Hamilton collections.