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Women Writers Online

The Women Writers Project is providing free public access* to Women Writers Online, a database of early modern texts written by women, during Women’s History month. While the database does not contain images, you may find some interesting commentary on art and artists, for example:

 
excerpts from pages 89 and 111 of Margaret (Lucas) Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle, The World’s Olio, 1655 (pagesĀ  89, 111)

Or it were better see a Gentleman hew down trees, or dig in the bowels of the earth amongst minerals, than painting, or pencilling: for that shews manly strength, command and force over the hardiest of natures works, so as it be voluntary and not slavish. It is more manly to be a Souldier . . .

“There be some that condemn the Art of Painting in Women, others that defend it; for, say they, as Nature hath made one World, so Art another, and that Art is become the Mistris of Nature; neither is it against Nature to help the Defects. Besides, those that find out new Arts, are esteemed so, that they become as Petty Gods, whether they become Advantageous to Man, or no . . .”

* WWO is always available to the University of Chicago community via library subscription.

By mmacken

twitter: meganmacken

Director, Visual Resources Center and Digital Media Archive, Division of the Humanities, The University of Chicago.

My academic background ranges from classics and comparative literature to modern art and architectural history, and so, naturally, I am a librarian. I have graduate degrees in art history and library science, manage digital image and audio collections for the Division of the Humanities, and am always eager to collaborate across disciplines, universities, and even continents! I'm interested in exploring the library's role in Digital Humanities, not just as an archive for born-digital objects but as a locus for Digital Humanities centers. At THATCamp I'm excited to find out how others are visualizing data, especially to facilitate creative research and teaching in art and architectural history and film studies. How can visual data (still images, film, 3D models, etc) move beyond illustration and become a source for research? What kind of creative information retrieval interfaces do we need to do this? We've got metadata...let's make it work!