Cataloging, Digitizing, and Creating Access to 17th-Century British Book Illustrations

FAIN: PW-51002-12

Folger Shakespeare Library admin by Trustees of Amherst College (Washington, DC 20003-1004)
Stephen C. Enniss (Project Director: July 2011 to February 2014)
Daniel De Simone (Project Director: February 2014 to May 2019)
Daniel De Simone (Project Director: February 2014 to May 2019)

The digitization of 10,000 engraved and woodcut illustrations from British and English-language books published in other parts of the world between 1604 and 1700.

British Book Illustration: Extending Access to 17th-Century Visual Culture (BBI) will afford humanities researchers access to the largely hidden collection of narratively- and iconographically-rich woodcut and engraved illustrations held in the Folger Shakespeare Library's early printed books. This project will digitize and index 10,000 English book illustrations in two phases: First, BBI will cover illustrations for the years 1604-1640, starting after the Tudor period where current reference guides end. Second, BBI will enable access to a large portion of the world's extant major 17th-century illustrated works with 3,300 illustrations from the Folger collection of 1641-1700 English imprints. The illustrations will be available publicly through the Folger's Luna Insight image database and indexed by subjects, names of depicted individuals and places, and names of producers.