Students work to build material culture database

​Led by English Professor Dr. Martin Brückner with support from UD's Morris Library staff and the Center for Material Culture Studies, students from both the English and Art History Departments are working together to create a searchable database of material objects that appear in literature and art. According to their website, the Thingstor Working Group aims to "design a database model (or proof of concept) that would provide access, background, and a sense of scale of the way in which objects of all kinds circulate in and communicate across the literary and visual arts."

Currently, a prototype of the database holds about 100 objects from American and British literature and visual arts from the 1830s to the 1870s. Each object has associated biographical, geographical and historical information to allow deeper research into corresponding visual and literary works.

From here, the Working Group hopes to expand the database to include objects appearing in American and British works ranging from the 17th to 20th centuries, and to develop more robust computational and representational tools.

For more information on Thingstor and the team behind it, visit their newly launched website.