A Nation of Shopkeepers: Trade Ephemera from 1654 to the 1860 in the John Johnson Collection of the Bodleian Library at Oxford University is, like many of these projects, mean to accompany or document a physcal exhibition, this one shown in 2001. The exhibit is meant to be a visual chronicle of the mercantile society in great Briatain during the specified time periosd.
Collection Principles:
The objects in the exhibit are all part of a special collection held at the library, the John Johnson Collection, consisting of about 1 million printed "ephemera" or printed material not meant to be kept - advertisements, pamphlets, packing paper, cheap popular entertainments, etc. Dr. Johnson collected in the first half of the 20th century, and the material itself dates from the 16th century until 1939. This particular digital repository, is an on-line copy of a physical exhibit, complete with pictures of the exhibit space and how the materials were physically displayed. Specifically British, the collection is meant to illustrate the merchant state of the British empire. As explicitly stated in the introduction
Object Characteristics:
The exhibit contains 338 individual scans of ephemera, as well as 4 "Supplemental images" and a number of pictures of the physical displays. The pictures are in jpeg format, and are not standardized - some resolutions are vastly higher than others. Clicking on a thumbnail leads to a larger picture of the images, but despite the presence of a zoom button, images cannot be further enlarged. Each object is displayed with a brief essay detailing what the image shows and its probable origins and usage. Supplemental images are tied back to other images in the collection, but are otherwise devoid of description. The collection is navigable as a whole, and is also broken down into different sub-headings by category (shop signs, trade cards, etc.)
Metadata:
All the images are presumable of objects held at the Bodleian Library in Oxford. The objects are titled with their name, trade, trade sign, town (if not London) and date, and are numbered in the order in which they appeared in the physical exhibit, as well as their shelf mark from the collection. As mentioned above the collection catalog is searchable through a sperate web portal, and displays the MARC records, but is in no way linked back to the images.
Intended Audience:
The collection is intended, as stated in the introduction, for both scholars of British history and the casual web browser, who might be interested in the material. It is clearly supposed to promote a somewhat obscure collection and the Bodleian Library, including linking the a store where one can buy a paper copy of the exhibit's catalog (although the link is broken). The exhibit is 7 years old now, and the pages have not been updated, lending the whole enterprise a very out-dated visual style completely different form the library's newer web portal.
Collection Principles:
The objects in the exhibit are all part of a special collection held at the library, the John Johnson Collection, consisting of about 1 million printed "ephemera" or printed material not meant to be kept - advertisements, pamphlets, packing paper, cheap popular entertainments, etc. Dr. Johnson collected in the first half of the 20th century, and the material itself dates from the 16th century until 1939. This particular digital repository, is an on-line copy of a physical exhibit, complete with pictures of the exhibit space and how the materials were physically displayed. Specifically British, the collection is meant to illustrate the merchant state of the British empire. As explicitly stated in the introduction
"The aim in focussing on the ephemera of trade is twofold: to show something of the way in which printed ephemera helps us piece together our social history and to demonstrate how (with the aid of new technology in both cataloging and digitisation) these bibliographically challenging materials can be made more accessible and thus more useful, both to the academic researcher and to the casual web surfer"
In addition to the exhibit, the entirety of the Johnson collection is searchable on the web through a separate catalog page, though that displays only the metadata and not the images.
In addition to the exhibit, the entirety of the Johnson collection is searchable on the web through a separate catalog page, though that displays only the metadata and not the images.
Object Characteristics:
The exhibit contains 338 individual scans of ephemera, as well as 4 "Supplemental images" and a number of pictures of the physical displays. The pictures are in jpeg format, and are not standardized - some resolutions are vastly higher than others. Clicking on a thumbnail leads to a larger picture of the images, but despite the presence of a zoom button, images cannot be further enlarged. Each object is displayed with a brief essay detailing what the image shows and its probable origins and usage. Supplemental images are tied back to other images in the collection, but are otherwise devoid of description. The collection is navigable as a whole, and is also broken down into different sub-headings by category (shop signs, trade cards, etc.)
Metadata:
All the images are presumable of objects held at the Bodleian Library in Oxford. The objects are titled with their name, trade, trade sign, town (if not London) and date, and are numbered in the order in which they appeared in the physical exhibit, as well as their shelf mark from the collection. As mentioned above the collection catalog is searchable through a sperate web portal, and displays the MARC records, but is in no way linked back to the images.
Intended Audience:
The collection is intended, as stated in the introduction, for both scholars of British history and the casual web browser, who might be interested in the material. It is clearly supposed to promote a somewhat obscure collection and the Bodleian Library, including linking the a store where one can buy a paper copy of the exhibit's catalog (although the link is broken). The exhibit is 7 years old now, and the pages have not been updated, lending the whole enterprise a very out-dated visual style completely different form the library's newer web portal.
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