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Yorkshire Region

Cultural Studies Research Forum
Reports and Abstracts 1995 -2000

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From quill pen to CD-Rom

Jan Crowther

Janice E. Crowther & Peter A. Crowther, eds. The Diary of Robert Sharp of South Cave: life in a Yorkshire Village, 1812-1837. Records of Social and Economic History, New Series 26, British Academy and OUP, 1998. pp.723.

Robert Sharp (1774-1843), was a schoolmaster at South Cave, from 1804 until his death. He was involved in every aspect of village life, and an avid reader of books, newspapers and periodicals. His diary illustrates to what extent a market village was affected by national occurrences, such as emigration, Catholic emancipation, parliamentary reform, agricultural unrest, the new Poor Law, and the Corn Laws. Jan and Peter Crowther were able to transcribe this fragile and lengthy diary directly onto a computer, and to save costs by producing camera-ready copy. An introduction, footnotes, biographies, bibliographies, glossaries, maps, and comprehensive index provided context. Editorial work utilised a combination of modern finding aids and more traditional ones, from the 11th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica (1910-11) to databases available on the internet and on CD-Rom. Sharp was fond of literary quotations, often including the odd line from obscure poems. Identifying them was made possible only by using English Poetry: the English poetry full text database, CD-Rom edition (Chadwyck-Healey Ltd 1992). Sharp's references to books and journals now little known were traced through the British Library's on-line public access catalogue. The new technology has revolutionised scholarship in many ways and made the task of editing even more satisfying and enjoyable.