Introduction

The project aims to uncover the history of the book trades of eighteenth-century London, providing a searchable database of members of the trade, maps and 'virtual reality' models of the key centres of book production.

 

Background

The project was begun by Dr James Raven in the early 1990s and has been co-ordinated by the Cambridge Project for the Book Trust. From January to September 1997 work commenced on compiling a database of members of the London book trades by Dr Nigel Hall (Mansfield College, Oxford University). This early work was funded by a grant from the Leverhulme Trust. From 1 March 1999 joint funding by the Arts & Humanities Research Board and Oxford University for a full time research fellowship at Oxford University enabled the appointment of Dr John Cardwell to carry forward the work. From 1 March 2000 Nigel Hall succeeded Dr Cardwell as Research Fellow. Prof. James Raven (University of Essex, Colchester) is director of the project.

 

Aims

The project aims to supplement existing sources which identify members of the eighteenth-century London book trades. Information is being gathered on booksellers, printers, stationers, bookbinders and members of non-book related trades operating in areas important for book production (for instance the Fleet Street and Paternoster Row areas) in order to place members of the book trades in context. The database will locate the exact premises which members of the trades operated from and precisely when and for how long they occupied these premises. The database will be fully searchable, allowing users to search by name, occupation and address.

Maps of eighteenth-century London are being created which identify individual properties and the occupation of those working from them. These are designed to enhance our understanding of how different branches of the book trades related to each other and how important book producing areas 'worked'. Through the use of 'virtual reality' modelling techniques, key areas of book production are recreated. Maps and models will be incorporated into an over all software package complete with searchable database.