Peterloo Collection first to be launched on new Digital Platform
31 Oct 2019
The University of Manchester’s extensive Peterloo Collection is the first to be launched on the innovative new digital platform, giving users all over the world access to the unique documents within the collection.
Built in collaboration with Cambridge University Library’s Digital Library team, the Digital Humanities-led digital collection at Manchester will give users enhanced viewing of images accompanied by text, audio and video content, enabling academics to curate digital editions of documents and other items to bring their research to a wider audience.
The Peterloo Collection includes books, newspaper articles and other documents concerning the Peterloo Massacre, which took place at St Peter’s Field in Manchester on 16 August 1819 when the Cavalry rode into a crowd of 60,000 people calling for parliamentary reform by means of legal protest. The massacre is known for being the most violent political meeting in British history.
The digital project is being led by Dr Guyda Armstrong, Faculty Lead for Digital Humanities, in collaboration with colleagues from Creative Manchester, The University of Manchester Library, the John Rylands Research Institute, IT Services and academics from the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures.
"This exciting collaboration with Cambridge University Library to build a world-class image viewer will have a transformative effect on the way we can undertake research on the University’s special collections, and puts the humanities at the heart of the wider University focus on digital and data research across the institution,” said Dr Armstrong.
The Peterloo Collection launched on 29 October, this will be followed by the Latin Collection on 19 November and Petrarch Collection on 10 December. The platform will officially launch on 28 January 2020. To view the Peterloo items from our Special Collections, visit Manchester Digital Collections.