Imperiia: An Information Ecosystem for Russian History

FAIN: HAA-266553-19

President and Fellows of Harvard College (Cambridge, MA 02138-3800)
Kelly O'Neill (Project Director: January 2019 to May 2024)

The further development of a map-based platform and enhanced set of tools to better integrate spatial history and Russian studies, allowing scholars to make connections between disparate sources and identify new research questions and areas of study.

We are applying for a Level II Digital Humanities Advancement Grant to support a 12-month project from September 1, 2019, to August 31, 2020. This funding will support the first attempt to not only apply the tools and methods of spatial history to the Russian past but to build an open framework for collaborative historical GIS work in the field of Russian studies. The information ecosystem we are building is intended to uncover and forge meaningful connections among historical sources, both quantitative and qualitative, that have not been studied together before. Our goal for the grant period is to shift from our current focus on database design and data development to three methodological challenges: 1) machine-based extraction of spatial data from texts and maps, 2) definition of a flexible, extensible ontology that will connect all project elements, and 3) innovation of a map-centric digital platform for visualizing, analyzing, and interpreting Russia’s spatial history.

Associated Products

Urban Legends (Web Resource)
Title: Urban Legends
Author: Kelly O'Neill
Abstract: This is our attempt to convert 416 plans - 416 thumbnail sketches of towns as they existed two centuries ago - into usable historical knowledge. This might sound overly ambitious. After all, the plans have their limits. They do not describe every town in the empire. Some of the towns they describe no longer exist. They barely scratch the surface of how any one town looked - let alone what life there might have been like. They are clearly more concerned with an idealized future steeped in notions of rationality and productivity than with capturing the messy nuances of reality. Those gridded blocks and neat lines? They are nothing more than a glorious act of imagination. But if you want to know where the breweries or butcheries were (or were supposed to be), this is a good place to start. If you want to know whether small and large towns had (or were intended to have) similar layouts, or what rivers might have had to do with Russian's urban fabric, the plans have a lot to tell us. "Urban Legends" provides 1) access to hundreds of town plans, a subset of which have been partially or fully annotated (in most cases the annotations translate legend information from Russian into English); 2) access to a set of data visualizations built on the textual and graphic data extracted from the plans. It is a resource for teaching and for research into Russian urban history.
Year: 2021
Primary URL: https://imperiia.omeka.fas.harvard.edu/exhibits/show/urban-legends
Primary URL Description: The URL takes you to the project, which is housed on an instance of Omeka spun up for the Imperiia Project by Harvard IT.

Gardens of Crimea [dataset] (Database/Archive/Digital Edition)
Title: Gardens of Crimea [dataset]
Author: Kelly O'Neill
Abstract: Ten years after Catherine II annexed Crimea, Russian imperial officials undertook a survey of some of the most valuable properties in the newly-acquired territory: its gardens. The survey focused on orchards and vineyards that had been abandoned by their owners (Tatars and Greeks) and claimed as state property. The work was carried out between 1791 and 1793 and this dataset presents the results. The data describes 809 orchards and 332 vineyards located mainly on the southern coast and along a trio of rivers flowing northwest out of the mountains. Location data is based on OpenStreetMap data (WGS84).
Year: 2022
Primary URL: https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/WFLMOL
Primary URL Description: The URL brings you to the dataset publication page within Dataverse.
Access Model: open access

Gardens of Crimea (Web Resource)
Title: Gardens of Crimea
Author: Kelly O'Neill
Abstract: The building blocks of this dashboard are a set of documents held in the State Archive of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, and a set of botanical publications held at Harvard Library, the New York Public Library, the Russian Geographical Society, and the Bibliothèque nationale de France. The dashboard covers a long 19th century, from a tree census in 1793 to the publication of an Atlas of Fruits in 1906. It includes image galleries, datasets, glossaries, and maps.
Year: 2022
Primary URL: https://imperiia.scalar.fas.harvard.edu/imperiia/gardens
Primary URL Description: The URL brings you to the dashboard page within the Imperiia website hosted on Scalar.

Tradition and Innovation in the Apple Orchard (Blog Post)
Title: Tradition and Innovation in the Apple Orchard
Author: Kelly O'Neill
Abstract: Description of the Gardens of Crimea project, explaining the historical significance of orchards and the significance of the project from a DH perspective.
Date: 8/6/2022
Primary URL: https://daviscenter.fas.harvard.edu/insights/tradition-and-innovation-apple-orchard
Blog Title: All blog posts on the DCRES website are contained in the "Insights" section.
Website: Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies

Territory and People in Europe: A New (Old) Tool (Blog Post)
Title: Territory and People in Europe: A New (Old) Tool
Author: Kelly O'Neill
Abstract: Introduces an interactive edition (produced by Imperiia) of an 18th century visualization of European demographics.
Date: 11/15/2022
Primary URL: https://daviscenter.fas.harvard.edu/insights/territory-and-people-europe-new-old-tool
Blog Title: "Insights"
Website: Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies

Siberia through 17th-Century Eyes (Blog Post)
Title: Siberia through 17th-Century Eyes
Author: Kelly O'Neill
Abstract: Introduces the Siberian Sketchbook project; the contents and structure of Remezov's atlas; the goals and methods of our work with it; and the first major lesson we have drawn from the work.
Date: 12/6/2022
Primary URL: https://daviscenter.fas.harvard.edu/insights/siberia-through-17th-century-eyes
Blog Title: "Insights"
Website: Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies

History through Playing Cards (Database/Archive/Digital Edition)
Title: History through Playing Cards
Author: Kelly O'Neill
Abstract: This dataset is sourced from an elegant deck of playing cards created in 1856 to teach members of Russia's elite families about the empire they inhabited. The cards—all 80 of them—provide us with a unique perspective on how the subjects of the tsar “saw” their country on the eve of the emancipation of the serfs. The resulting data includes hundreds of attributes describing the distribution of economic activities, ethnic groups, geographical features, and historical "particularities." The data is accompanied by a readme, a file catalog, a codebook, and a glossary. Spatial units: 3 semi-autonomous regions (polygons); 77 provinces (polygons); 417 towns (points); 180 rivers (lines)
Year: 2022
Primary URL: https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/3N72NM
Primary URL Description: URL brings you to the dataset publication page within Dataverse.
Access Model: open access

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