My Summer Research

This summer, I am continuing my Presidential Fellows research in the Digital Humanities through the REED London project. REED London is a long running project compiling primary sources involving different forms of theatre in Elizabethan and Stuart England. I’ve chosen to narrow my focus to the so-called Magnificent Marriage of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Frederick V of the Rhine in 1613, and the history of place. The wedding of Elizabeth and Frederick was a massive cultural phenomenon surrounded by weeks of performance and festivities. Using the REED London texts and other primary sources, I’ve been attempting to map out the places involved in these performances.

So far this summer, I’ve focused primarily on ArcGIS software to manipulate historical maps to fit modern satellite maps in order to contextualize historical places with their location in modern London. This has been challenging, as London as a city has changed a lot in past centuries due to fires, bombings, industrialization, and urbanization. It’s difficult to find high quality maps of London that aren’t strangely stitched together, and so I’ve familiarized myself with Adobe Photoshop to crop and clean up maps to make them more usable (attached are the Ogilby-Morgan map of London as I found it online, and my edited and georectified version of the map). I’ve also begun reading letters from witnesses to the wedding festivities, such as prolific correspondent John Chamberlain.

The unedited Ogilby-Morgan map unevenly stitched together
Edited and georectified Ogilby-Morgan map