Our Archives
[First published on 24 September 2016, with updates]
As our website (You are Here) records more and more of our activities, which continue to advance and to expand, we also present more elements from our organization’s archives. These elements take various forms, on paper, in photographs, in print, and in scanned materials.
Our Websites (2007‒)
Our official website is a generous, long-term donation by our Webmaster, our Associate Jesse D. Hurlbut. Designed and maintained by Jesse, it is updated by our WebEditor, Mildred Budny, with contributions by Guest Bloggers and Administrators. It is one of our principal Publications, whose number continues to grow.
Our First Website (2007‒2014)
From the first, once we received a website (2007‒), it began to report our activities variously in progress and in preparation. In a series of Pages, it published our Profile (formerly circulated only in print — as with the Profile dated October 1992 — but now online, with updates, starting with our Front Page). With our Mission statement on the Front Page, this first website presented a series of Pages outlined in its sidebar. It named our Officers, Associates, and Volunteers, described our various events, listed our Publications, and more.
That first website is archived in some “snapshots” by the Wayback Machine.
- March 24, 2008
- May 25, 2008
- September 11, 2011
- February 11, 2013
- June 5, 2013
- December 11, 2013
- January 2, 2014
- May 8, 2014
- May 9, 2014
- May 17, 2014
- December 8, 2014
- December 17, 2014
Thenceforth, the Wayback Machine has captured snapshots of our new website (You are Here), starting in June 2015. For example:
In the transition between websites (2014), the first site (Drupal) remained active, as a site archived online and still accessible directly, while the second site (WordPress) was launched, albeit with some “teething problems”.
As preserved in a final snapshot via the Wayback Machine (December 17, 2014), the first site proclaimed its obsolescent state prominently at the top of the Front Page:
PLEASE NOTE: OUR WEBSITE IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION. We are upgrading and redesigning our website. While we transfer materials from this site (our first website), to the new one, it is now available for viewing: https://manuscriptevidence.org/wpme/). The new site allows for images and other media, so that we can illustrate our activities and publish more of our materials.
Our Expanding Events
At that time in our history, when we could launch our first website in 2007, our principal activities in the form of scholarly gatherings focused upon Congress Activities (1993‒1995, 1997, and 2004‒), occurring at the annual International Congress of Medieval Studies (ICMS), held at Kalamazoo each May.
Soon, we resumed the tradition of other events as well.
For convenience, we have come to distinguish between these many sponsored and co-sponsored “Congress Activities” (1993‒1995, 1997, and 2004‒), which take place at the ICMS, and our other “Events”, which occur elsewhere (1989–). More recently, to our Congress or Convention Activities, we added Panels at the M-MLA Convention (2016–).
Those Events take the forms notably of Seminars, Workshops, Colloquia, and Symposia (1989–). Another group of Events comprises our Photographic Exhibitions and Masterclasses. They overlap in significant ways with our growing list of Publications, which appear in print and electronic forms.
By the time of our second website (You are Here), with the ability to add images and downloadable pdfs, we could report our current activities, record our history, illustrate our research, and extend our publications into digital forms.
Our Second Website (2014–)
Snapshots of our second, redesigned website (You are Here) appear in the Wayback Machine.
And so on. The archive presents 11 snapshots for 2016 and 6 for 2017. See manuscriptevidence.org there. Thus the Internet Archive contributes (arbitrarily) to the records of our history outside our own sphere. As of 28 April, 2020, the most recent snapshot was made for
With the upgrade and redesign of our website (launched in 2014), we could display more materials, in both images and downloadable pdfs. This opened the path to set up Galleries of Images, for example to show you the Posters for our Events and our Congress Activities, to exhibit examples of our Layout Designs, to display Photographs from our Events, Activities, and Research Discoveries, and to give you more of our Publications, including the Program Booklets for Events and Activities and the Booklets publishing some of our Research Discoveries.
Other Social Media
Seminars, Workshops, Colloquia & Symposia (1989‒)
One of the first phases of the process of opening the Research Group Archives for our website focused upon the Early Years of our Seminars, Workshops, and Symposia, which occurred regularly as part of the collaborative Research Project at the Parker Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, from which the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence emerged. This “First Series” was principally dedicated to Seminars on “The Evidence of Manuscripts” (1989‒1995). Organized or co-organized by Mildred Budny, these events took place mainly at the Parker Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and occasionally at other centers in England, Japan, and the United States.
View Toward the Entrance to the Parker Library in mid-1989. Photograph © Mildred Budny.
Following the move of our principal base to the Princeton in 1994, we developed a wide-ranging further series of Seminars, Workshops, Colloquia, and Symposia.
First among them was the annual series of Symposia on “The Transmission of the Bible” (1995‒2000), held in turn at Princeton, Rutgers, and Fordham Universities.
There followed the The New Series of Symposia, Colloquia, Workshops & Seminars (2001–), held at a variety of centers, including Princeton University.
While the Research Group continued its Congress Activities at the International Congress on Medieval Studies, with the addition annually (since 2014) of a Reception and an Open Business Meeting (and its handy 1-page Agenda, available on our website), we have also begun the tradition of Sponsored Panels at the Annual Convention of the Midwest Modern Language Association (2016‒).
Our Blogs (2014–)
As the redesigned website took fuller shape, and the work of presenting more of our archival evidence, the site could include 2 blogs.
Congress (2014–)
The blog for our Congress Activities reports the preparations for, and the accomplishment of, our sponsored and co-sponsored Congress Activities at the annual International Congress on Medieval Studies. These include the Calls for Papers, the Programs of the Sessions and other activities at the year’s Congress, reports of the accomplished Congresses, and an occasional Report Behind the Scenes.
An example of these fruits can be seen even when the Congress itself had to be cancelled, as our report not only shows the aims of the sessions but also publishes the Abstracts of the Papers which our contributors had planned for our sponsored and co-sponsored sessions for the 2020 Congress Program.
Duck Family at the 2007 Congress. Photography © Mildred Budny.
Manuscript and Other Studies
We also have a blog on Manuscript Studies (2014–). Among other things, it showcases discoveries from our long-term, as well as recent, research. See the Contents List for the blog, arranged mainly by subjects and materials.
M for ‘Manus’ (‘Hand’), Bouquets Included
There are appearances also by guest bloggers, who report on various subjects.
Interviews
A new series of Interviews, in various forms, reflects upon our origins and history as an organization, as well as our publications and activities.
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More is on the way. Watch this Space.
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After our proposals for the 2017 sessions were accepted, our 2017 Call for Papers described the scope and aims of the sessions and invited proposals for their papers for consideration. Next, after the official closure of the Call for Papers on 15 September 2016, we selected the programs of the sessions, submitted them to the Congress Committee, and, in due course, announced these 2017 Congress Preparations.
