The De Geer Correspondence

Grundinformation
- Period: 2026-04-01 – 2027-03-31
- Budget: 2,342,123 SEK
- Funder: Olle Engkvists stiftelse
Beskrivning
The first part of the project The De Geer Correspondence aims at collecting, digitizing and giving access to the outgoing letters written by Charles de Geer the Entomologist (1720–1778), which were written in Swedish, Latin, French and Dutch (the incoming letters seem to be lost). Using methods such as HTR, machine translation and Name Entity Recognition, searchable full text versions of the letters will be made accessible in Alvin (a Swedish repository for digital cultural heritage material), both as images and as transcribed text, in parallel with translation into English, English summaries, subject headings and names mentioned in the letters. In the second part of the project, the letters will be researched in order to investigate how they mirror the building, collecting, use and reading at the famous library of Charles de Geer at Lövstabruk in Northern Uppland. A subproject will also be devoted to examining material traces from reading and book use at the library of Lövstabruk, and what can be learnt from that.