As Conchas de Ruskin

John Ruskin (1819–1900) assembled an impressive collection of shells over the course of his life. During his final years he displayed some of the fruits of his labours at Brantwood, his home overlooking Coniston Water in the northwest of England. Ruskin valued these shells for their beauty. He put them in a glass cabinet alongside geological specimens, historical artefacts and works of art. But Ruskin’s interest in his shell collection was not just superficial. In this essay, I ponder the deeper meaning Ruskin discovered in the shells he collected, both marine and terrestrial, and I suggest how his shell studies reflect principles developed in his writings on art and architecture, as well as his attitude towards the natural sciences. In order to stake an approach to these issues, I begin this essay by considering the remarks of other writers who have commented on the beauty and curiosity of shells. I then proceed to contrast these aesthetic appreciations with Ruskin’s more ethically informed contemplations

Reveal

http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/108448/1/donaldcs_1366951820.pd

From Skiddaw to Scruffell: Sightlines over the Solway

Explores the geography, and literary antecedents, of William Wordsworth\u27s poems about Robert Burns from the visit he and his sister Dorothy made across the Solway Firth to Dumfries and Ellisland in 1803, and discusses the link they made between the two mountains of Skiddaw in Cumberland and Curfell or Criffel on the Scottish side of the Firth

Workflow

This editorial introduces a series of short papers dedicated to issues of workflow in digital humanities research. Paper contributors include Melodee Beals (Loughborough University), Adam Crymble and Katrina Navikas (University of Hertfordshire), and Seth Cayley (Director of Research Publishing at Gale)

Digital Heritage

This short article introduces a new instalment of the Digital Forum adopts a curatorial focus in order to consider the roles played by digital resources in the creation and management of collections of relevance for the study of the Victorian age. Featuring contributions from Douglas Dodds (of the V&A), Peter Findlay (of JISC) and Jenny Mitcham (of the Borthwick Institute), this instalment of the DF explores issues ranging from the digitisation of historical artefacts to the storage and presentation of those artefacts as ‘surrogates’ in a digital environment