Jacob Orrje

Short presentation

My research focus is digital history and early modern history of knowledge. Currently, I am conducting two research projects, funded by the Swedish Research Council. In "Merchants of Enlightenment", I study the role of merchants in the exchange of scholarly knowledge. In the project "Mapping the geographies of early modern mining knowledge", I lead a group of researchers from Stockholm and Uppsala University who explore the study tours of the Swedish Bureau of Mines through digital methods.

Keywords

• digital humanities
• cultural history of science
• early modern history
• eighteenth century
• global history
• digital history
• handwritten text recognition (htr)

Biography

My research examines early modern knowledge making from cultural and social perspectives. I have an interest in practical mathematics, and knowledge about nature in contexts outside of universities and academies, e.g. in public life, the emerging state apparatus, and in commerce. With a background in information technology, I am also interested in the use of digital methods, for understanding early modern history in new ways. Especially, I have been exploring the use of machine-learning based methods for transcriptions of printed and hand-written historical text, and how such methods can change the way we use older historical sources.

Currently, I am employed as a researcher in history of science and ideas at Uppsala University, and as a digital historian of science at the Center for History of Science at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

I received my PhD from in History of Science and Ideas from Uppsala University in 2015, where I worked as a researcher and teacher 2015–16. From 2016–19, I held a postdoctoral position in cultural history at the Department for Culture and Aesthetics at Stockholm University.

Research

From January 2022, I am leading the project "Mapping the geographies of early modern mining knowledge". The project uses state-of-the-art digital methods – such as handwritten text recognition (HTR) and deep mapping – to explore the collection of foreign knowledge of the Swedish Bureau of Mines through their collection of handwritten travelogues.

Between 2019–24, I am also conducting the research project "Merchants of Enlightenment" (funded by Vetenskapsrådet). The project examines how merchants in the North Sea and Baltic Sea region of the eighteenth century provided a logistical infrastructure for the circulation of knowledge, through which e.g. letters, books, and instruments were exchanged. Read more about the project here.

Previously, I have studied the role of the Swedish Lutheran congregation in London as a contact-zone in the exchange of Anglo-Swedish scholarly knowledge, as well as the actions of go-betweens with multiple state loyalties in the travel narratives in Swedish travelogues from London of the eighteenth century.

My thesis (Mechanicus. Performing an early modern persona, 2015) analysed mechanics as a way for young men in early modern Sweden to present themselves as virtuous and useful subjects.