Living with Machines

About

We're working with data scientists, historians, curators, computational linguists and research software engineers to analyse millions of pages of newspapers and thousands of maps. We want to understand how the mechanisation of work changed people's lives.

We need your help because computers can't match human abilities for understanding historical texts. At different points in the project tasks we would like help with could include helping us understand what was meant by the use of the word 'machine', or recording the details of industrial accidents reported in 19th century newspapers.

Start helping now!

You don't even need to register to help out - just click to get started.

Aims

Living with Machines aims to:

• Generate new historical perspectives on the effects of mechanisation on the lives of ordinary people during the long nineteenth century.
• Support the academic and cultural heritage sector in using digital methods to answer historical questions.
• Create new tools and code that can be reused and built upon in future projects.
• Develop new computational techniques for working with historical research questions.
• Enrich the British Library’s data holdings for the benefit of all.
• Advance public awareness of how digital research in the humanities can enhance understandings of history.

Follow our progress

We'll post regularly to our blog and tweet from @LivingWMachines with news about the team and our work.

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We'll keep an eye on our forum for questions and you can also contact us via our website.

Thank you to our funders

This programme, funded by the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Strategic Priority Fund, is a multidisciplinary collaboration delivered by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), with The Alan Turing Institute, the British Library and the Universities of Cambridge, East Anglia, Exeter, and Queen Mary University of London. Funder reference: AH/S01179X/1