Resources- Housekeeping: Bronteana.org?


I have not made a post about the Bronteana Resource Page in several weeks now. For those of you who are not aware of its existence, it is a resource I began some months ago in an attempt to make some of the material I have gathered in my studies available online. So far this consists of transcriptions I had made of several works by the Brontes which were not available as e-texts, including Charlotte's unfinished novel Emma, and several essays written by Emily.

The major project on hand was to scan and upload illustrations from my personal collection. I have not counted what I have, but I have not started on at least 3 or 4 editions of Jane Eyre, and another one is only partly scanned. The problem arose that the host I chose for the page has silly rules about how much you can post per page. So going to the illustrations page for Jane Eyre gives you the illustrations of three or four artists and then directs you to another two or three pages. It is a clumbsy and annoying system.

I have attempted to solve the problem by relocating. I have obtained webspace from Dalhousie University and have already begun to set up a new page. However, all of my copies of the illustrations are in Ontario and I'm in Nova Scotia... Also, as part of my graduate studies I will be involved with something similar but even more time-consuming: single-handedly editing and publishing online a previously-unpublished manuscript by the 18th century writer John Thelwall (I am crazy, and have decided to work on the one with three or four drafts complete with scrawlings and revisions). Some of you have been kind enough to send images for the archive but I am reluctant to post anything until I know where and how the page will be set up. Time will be a factor, I think.

One last point for this very long housekeeping note! This week I talked with a Victorian professor who has taught courses on adaptations of the Bronte novels. After hearing about this blog and my work she suggested I think about the NINES Project. The NINES Project is a scholarly initiative with the general aim of keeping Victorian studies in step with the change from print to digital culture. There are now electronic academic journals, but also archives such as Bronteana or the revolutionary William Blake Archive.