During ten years of working on the Women’s Print History Project, we have thought seriously and often about “women’s book history.” What is it, and how do we define it in relation to the WPHP? As women working on the history of women’s book history, what does it feel like, and what do we have to offer? What ground has women’s book history trodden — and where is it going? And how can we contribute to a sustainable future for the field?As relatively new contributors to it, Kate and Kandice were thrilled to be joined—for the penultimate episode of The WPHP Monthly Mercury—by three scholars who have contributed to the field for decades and whose work has been invaluable to the WPHP, both practically and conceptually: Isobel Grundy, Leslie Howsam, and Maureen Bell. As one might suspect from these guests, the conversation is a thoughtful reflection on intergenerational collaboration and scholarship, the opportunities and limits of digital humanities, and where the field has been and where—we hope—it’s going. (Spoiler alert: we hope it’s going to a place rooted in continued, ongoing, and sustainable collaboration between past, present, and future researchers of women’s book history.)GuestsIsobel Grundy is Professor Emeritus at the University of Alberta and Research Director of the Orlando Project. She holds her B.A. and D.Phil. from Oxford University (St Anne&apos;s College) and taught at Queen Mary College, London University (now Queen Mary London), and at Alberta as Henry Marshall Tory Professor.She is one of three founding editors (with Patricia Clements and Susan Brown) of Orlando: Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present, a digital work of literary history, Cambridge University Press, 2006- (orlando.cambridge.org). She has published chiefly on Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Eliza Fenwick, Samuel Johnson, and women’s writing of the long eighteenth century.Leslie Howsam is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and Emerita professor of history at the University of Windsor.  She was part of the leadership of the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading, and Publishing from 2005 to 2021, serving as President 2009 to 2013. Her interest in women in book history (as authors and editors, printers and publishers, librarians and curators, and always as readers) began with the doctoral research that became Cheap Bibles: Nineteenth-Century Publishing and the British and Foreign Bible Society (Cambridge University Press, 1991). It continues as she investigates the connections between historical authorship and the book trade in Britain 1850-1950. Other publications include Old Books &amp; New Histories: An Orientation to the Study of Book &amp; Print Culture (University of Toronto Press, 2006) and Eliza Orme&apos;s Ambitions: Politics and the Law in Victorian London (Cambridge: Open Book Publishers, 2024). Maureen Bell’s early research centred on seventeenth-century women as printers, booksellers and publishers, after which she worked on documentary evidence for the London trade (A chronology and calendar of documents relating to the London book trade, 1641-1700 with D.F. McKenzie). As Director of the British Book Trade Index she led its transformation into an online resource, publishing on the English provincial trade, its book-owners and readers. Co-editing A biographical dictionary of English women writers, 1580-1720 with G. Parfitt and S. Shepherd (Harvester, 1990) led to introducing a course in ‘Women’s writing of the seventeenth century’ at the University of Birmingham. A member of the Editorial Board of the Cambridge edition of The works of Aphra Behn, she is currently working on the Wast Register Book of the Stationers’ Register and on the publishing of plays in the Restoration period.

<description>&lt;p&gt;During ten years of working on the &lt;em&gt;Women’s Print History Project&lt;/em&gt;, we have thought seriously and often about “women’s book history.” What is it, and how do we define it in relation to the WPHP? As women working on the history of women’s book history, what does it feel like, and what do we have to offer? What ground has women’s book history trodden — and where is it going? And how can we contribute to a sustainable future for the field?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As relatively new contributors to it, Kate and Kandice were thrilled to be joined—for the penultimate episode of &lt;em&gt;The WPHP Monthly Mercury&lt;/em&gt;—by three scholars who have contributed to the field for decades and whose work has been invaluable to the WPHP, both practically and conceptually: Isobel Grundy, Leslie Howsam, and Maureen Bell. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As one might suspect from these guests, the conversation is a thoughtful reflection on intergenerational collaboration and scholarship, the opportunities and limits of digital humanities, and where the field has been and where—we hope—it’s going. (Spoiler alert: we hope it’s going to a place rooted in continued, ongoing, and sustainable collaboration between past, present, and future researchers of women’s book history.)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Guests&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Isobel Grundy&lt;/b&gt; is Professor Emeritus at the University of Alberta and Research Director of the Orlando Project. She holds her B.A. and D.Phil. from Oxford University (St Anne&amp;apos;s College) and taught at Queen Mary College, London University (now Queen Mary London), and at Alberta as Henry Marshall Tory Professor.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;She is one of three founding editors (with Patricia Clements and Susan Brown) of Orlando: Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present, a digital work of literary history, Cambridge University Press, 2006- (orlando.cambridge.org). She has published chiefly on Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Eliza Fenwick, Samuel Johnson, and women’s writing of the long eighteenth century.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Leslie Howsam&lt;/b&gt; is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and Emerita professor of history at the University of Windsor.  She was part of the leadership of the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading, and Publishing from 2005 to 2021, serving as President 2009 to 2013. Her interest in women in book history (as authors and editors, printers and publishers, librarians and curators, and always as readers) began with the doctoral research that became &lt;em&gt;Cheap Bibles: Nineteenth-Century Publishing and the British and Foreign Bible Society &lt;/em&gt;(Cambridge University Press, 1991). It continues as she investigates the connections between historical authorship and the book trade in Britain 1850-1950. Other publications include &lt;em&gt;Old Books &amp;amp; New Histories: An Orientation to the Study of Book &amp;amp; Print Culture &lt;/em&gt;(University of Toronto Press, 2006) and &lt;em&gt;Eliza Orme&amp;apos;s Ambitions: Politics and the Law in Victorian London &lt;/em&gt;(Cambridge: Open Book Publishers, 2024). &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Maureen Bell&lt;/b&gt;’s early research centred on seventeenth-century women as printers, booksellers and publishers, after which she worked on documentary evidence for the London trade (&lt;em&gt;A chronology and calendar of documents relating to the London book trade, 1641-1700&lt;/em&gt; with D.F. McKenzie). As Director of the &lt;em&gt;British Book Trade Index&lt;/em&gt; she led its transformation into an online resource, publishing on the English provincial trade, its book-owners and readers. Co-editing &lt;em&gt;A biographical dictionary of English women writers, 1580-1720&lt;/em&gt; with G. Parfitt and S. Shepherd (Harvester, 1990) led to introducing a course in ‘Women’s writing of the seventeenth century’ at the University of Birmingham. A member of the Editorial Board of the Cambridge edition of &lt;em&gt;The works of Aphra Behn&lt;/em&gt;, she is currently working on the Wast Register Book of the Stationers’ Register and on the publishing of plays in the Restoration period. &lt;/p&gt;</description>

During ten years of working on the Women’s Print History Project, we have thought seriously and often about “women’s book history.” What is it, and how do we define it in relation to the WPHP? As women working on the history of women’s book history, what does it feel like, and what do we have to offer? What ground has women’s book history trodden — and where is it going? And how can we contribute to a sustainable future for the field? As relatively new contributors to it, Kate and Kandice wer...

Finding, Building, Sustaining, Supporting, feat. Isobel Grundy, Leslie Howsam, and Maureen Bell

On the WPHP, our encounters with books and the women who worked on them are bibliographically-focused, as they must be for a project of this scale—focused attention on the contents of every work and the stories of their producers simply isn’t possible. But that doesn’t mean we don’t want to engage with the works that closely—the opposite is true, in fact!—and for Episode 4 of Season 5 of The WPHP Monthly Mercury, “A Newcastle Novelist”, we were delighted to interview Dr. Tricia Monsour from the University of Saskatchewan about her dissertation project, a scholarly edition of a forgotten novel by a forgotten woman author, The Castle of Tynemouth (1806) by Jane Harvey, which does just that.Rigorous attention to the intellectual, personal, and geographical contexts of the novel and its publication shapes Dr. Monsour’s encounter with this work in particular, and her understanding of Harvey more generally. In this interview, she emphasizes Harvey’s attention to space, place, and genre, and the personal contexts that data in a WPHP record cannot fully capture, familiarizing us and our listeners with this Newcastle novelist.GuestsTricia Monsour is a recent doctoral graduate from the University of Saskatchewan, whose dissertation took the form of a scholarly edition of the early nineteenth-century novel The Castle of Tynemouth (1806).

<description>&lt;p&gt;On the WPHP, our encounters with books and the women who worked on them are bibliographically-focused, as they must be for a project of this scale—focused attention on the contents of every work and the stories of their producers simply isn’t possible. But that doesn’t mean we don’t want to engage with the works that closely—the opposite is true, in fact!—and for Episode 4 of Season 5 of The WPHP Monthly Mercury, “A Newcastle Novelist”, we were delighted to interview Dr. Tricia Monsour from the University of Saskatchewan about her dissertation project, a scholarly edition of a forgotten novel by a forgotten woman author, &lt;em&gt;The Castle of Tynemouth&lt;/em&gt; (1806) by Jane Harvey, which does just that.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Rigorous attention to the intellectual, personal, and geographical contexts of the novel and its publication shapes Dr. Monsour’s encounter with this work in particular, and her understanding of Harvey more generally. In this interview, she emphasizes Harvey’s attention to space, place, and genre, and the personal contexts that data in a WPHP record cannot fully capture, familiarizing us and our listeners with this Newcastle novelist.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Guests&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Tricia Monsour&lt;/b&gt; is a recent doctoral graduate from the University of Saskatchewan, whose dissertation took the form of a scholarly edition of the early nineteenth-century novel &lt;em&gt;The Castle of Tynemouth &lt;/em&gt;(1806). &lt;/p&gt;</description>

On the WPHP, our encounters with books and the women who worked on them are bibliographically-focused, as they must be for a project of this scale—focused attention on the contents of every work and the stories of their producers simply isn’t possible. But that doesn’t mean we don’t want to engage with the works that closely—the opposite is true, in fact!—and for Episode 4 of Season 5 of The WPHP Monthly Mercury, “A Newcastle Novelist”, we were delighted to interview Dr. Tricia Monsour from t...

A Newcastle Novelist, feat. Tricia Monsour

For Episode 3 of the fifth season of The WPHP Monthly Mercury, “Bibliographic Intimacies,” Kate and Kandice interviewed Megan Peiser and Emily Spunaugle about their work on the <a href='https://library.oakland.edu/collections/special/hicks.html'>Marguerite Hicks Collection</a> in the Kresge Library at Oakland University, a collection of women’s books collected by a queer, disabled woman. Their deep, immersive work on this collection highlights the physical, intellectual, and emotional intimacies that arise from bibliographic research. From the practicalities of rare book collection during the Second World War, to the joys (and occasional frustrations) of collaboration, to a heist (!!!), this episode really has it all. Join us to learn more about the human stories embedded in the Marguerite Hicks Collection.GuestsMegan Peiser is an enrolled Citizen of Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. She is associate professor of Literature at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan where she teaches eighteenth-century literature, Indigenous literature, digital humanities, and book history and bibliography. Her writing on these subjects can be found in Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, Eighteenth-Century Fiction, Eighteenth-Century Theory and Interpretation, Nineteenth-Century Gender Studies, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. Her monograph, The Review Periodical and British Women Novelists, 1790-1820 is forthcoming from Johns Hopkins University Press. Peiser is the co-manager with Emily Spunaugle of the Marguerite Hicks Project. She lives and works on the traditional and ancestral lands of the Anishinaabe people. Emily D. Spunaugle is Associate Professor and Coordinator of Archives and Special Collections at Oakland University in Rochester, MI. Her research interests include book history, bibliography, and women writers of the long eighteenth century, and her writing is featured in Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, Romantic Circles, ABO, Libraries: Culture, History, and Society, and elsewhere. She is a former chair of the Library History Round Table of the American Library Association and a former editor of SHARP News.

<description>&lt;p&gt;For Episode 3 of the fifth season of &lt;em&gt;The WPHP Monthly Mercury&lt;/em&gt;, “Bibliographic Intimacies,” Kate and Kandice interviewed Megan Peiser and Emily Spunaugle about their work on the &lt;a href='https://library.oakland.edu/collections/special/hicks.html'&gt;Marguerite Hicks Collection&lt;/a&gt; in the Kresge Library at Oakland University, a collection of women’s books collected by a queer, disabled woman. Their deep, immersive work on this collection highlights the physical, intellectual, and emotional intimacies that arise from bibliographic research. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;From the practicalities of rare book collection during the Second World War, to the joys (and occasional frustrations) of collaboration, to a heist (!!!), this episode really has it all. Join us to learn more about the human stories embedded in the Marguerite Hicks Collection.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Guests&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Megan Peiser is an enrolled Citizen of Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. She is associate professor of Literature at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan where she teaches eighteenth-century literature, Indigenous literature, digital humanities, and book history and bibliography. Her writing on these subjects can be found in Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, Eighteenth-Century Fiction, Eighteenth-Century Theory and Interpretation, Nineteenth-Century Gender Studies, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. Her monograph, The Review Periodical and British Women Novelists, 1790-1820 is forthcoming from Johns Hopkins University Press. Peiser is the co-manager with Emily Spunaugle of the Marguerite Hicks Project. She lives and works on the traditional and ancestral lands of the Anishinaabe people.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Emily D. Spunaugle is Associate Professor and Coordinator of Archives and Special Collections at Oakland University in Rochester, MI. Her research interests include book history, bibliography, and women writers of the long eighteenth century, and her writing is featured in Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, Romantic Circles, ABO, Libraries: Culture, History, and Society, and elsewhere. She is a former chair of the Library History Round Table of the American Library Association and a former editor of SHARP News.&lt;/p&gt;</description>

For Episode 3 of the fifth season of The WPHP Monthly Mercury, “Bibliographic Intimacies,” Kate and Kandice interviewed Megan Peiser and Emily Spunaugle about their work on the Marguerite Hicks Collection in the Kresge Library at Oakland University, a collection of women’s books collected by a queer, disabled woman. Their deep, immersive work on this collection highlights the physical, intellectual, and emotional intimacies that arise from bibliographic research.  From the practicalities...

Bibliographic Intimacies, feat. Megan Peiser and Emily D. Spunaugle

Every year, come hell or high water, The WPHP Monthly Mercury has released a gothic-inflected Halloween episode—and this year, we’re literally taking a trip to hell with Charlotte Dacre’s 1806 novel <a href='https://womensprinthistoryproject.com/title/360'>Zofloya; or, The Moor</a>. To talk about this demonic, orientalist bloodbath, Kandice sat down with WPHP collaborator Kate Ozment, and they found themselves hurled into the abyss of trying to untangle the plot of this most bonkers of bonkers novels. Happy Halloween!

<description>&lt;p&gt;Every year, come hell or high water, &lt;em&gt;The WPHP Monthly Mercury&lt;/em&gt; has released a gothic-inflected Halloween episode—and this year, we’re literally taking a trip to hell with Charlotte Dacre’s 1806 novel &lt;a href='https://womensprinthistoryproject.com/title/360'&gt;&lt;em&gt;Zofloya; or, The Moor&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;. &lt;/em&gt;To talk about this demonic, orientalist bloodbath, Kandice sat down with WPHP collaborator Kate Ozment, and they found themselves hurled into the abyss of trying to untangle the plot of this most bonkers of bonkers novels. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Happy Halloween!&lt;/p&gt;</description>

Every year, come hell or high water, The WPHP Monthly Mercury has released a gothic-inflected Halloween episode—and this year, we’re literally taking a trip to hell with Charlotte Dacre’s 1806 novel Zofloya; or, The Moor. To talk about this demonic, orientalist bloodbath, Kandice sat down with WPHP collaborator Kate Ozment, and they found themselves hurled into the abyss of trying to untangle the plot of this most bonkers of bonkers novels.  Happy Halloween! 

Deal with the Devil (feat. Kate Ozment)

Authority records, authority figures, authoritative scholarship... What does it really mean to have authority? Nothing good, according to Kandice. However, in working on a new project that relies on bibliographic data from the WPHP, she has had to confront her authority issues. (Meanwhile, Kate is still reeling from the discovery that &apos;WorldCat&apos; is short for &apos;World Catalogue&apos; and has nothing to do with felines.  On this podcast, we have spent a lot—a lot—of time talking about our sources, and especially the libraries and digitization initiatives that enable us to verify the majority of our title records. In the first episode of Season 5 (!!!), Kate and Kandice once again dig into the different kinds of authority records that they use (and don&apos;t use) to create and populate WPHP records—from VIAF to the ESTC to WorldCat—as well as whether WPHP records count as authority records. Authority records can help identify entities and disambiguate people and editions from each other. But just as having authority doesn&apos;t mean you&apos;re always right, &apos;data&apos; doesn&apos;t necessarily mean &apos;fact&apos;, and authority records can cause problems when they are built on faulty or limited data. From Sinful Sally to Frances Crewe, this episode explores the mistakes Kate and Kandice have made and the mistakes they have replicated from other resources to ask: what might it mean to call the WPHP an authority?

<description>&lt;p&gt;Authority records, authority figures, authoritative scholarship... What does it &lt;em&gt;really &lt;/em&gt;mean to have authority? Nothing good, according to Kandice. However, in working on a new project that relies on bibliographic data from the WPHP, she has had to confront her authority issues. (Meanwhile, Kate is still reeling from the discovery that &amp;apos;WorldCat&amp;apos; is short for &amp;apos;World Catalogue&amp;apos; and has nothing to do with felines. &lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;On this podcast, we have spent a lot—a &lt;em&gt;lot—&lt;/em&gt;of time talking about our sources, and especially the libraries and digitization initiatives that enable us to verify the majority of our title records. In the first episode of Season 5 (!!!), Kate and Kandice once again dig into the different kinds of authority records that they use (and don&amp;apos;t use) to create and populate WPHP records—from VIAF to the ESTC to WorldCat—as well as whether WPHP records count as authority records. Authority records can help identify entities and disambiguate people and editions from each other. But just as having authority doesn&amp;apos;t mean you&amp;apos;re always right, &amp;apos;data&amp;apos; doesn&amp;apos;t necessarily mean &amp;apos;fact&amp;apos;, and authority records can cause problems when they are built on faulty or limited data. From Sinful Sally to Frances Crewe, this episode explores the mistakes Kate and Kandice have made and the mistakes they have replicated from other resources to ask: what might it mean to call the WPHP an authority?&lt;/p&gt;</description>

Authority records, authority figures, authoritative scholarship... What does it really mean to have authority? Nothing good, according to Kandice. However, in working on a new project that relies on bibliographic data from the WPHP, she has had to confront her authority issues. (Meanwhile, Kate is still reeling from the discovery that 'WorldCat' is short for 'World Catalogue' and has nothing to do with felines.   On this podcast, we have spent a lot—a lot—of time talking about our s...

Authority Issues

The WPHP Monthly Mercury is the podcast of The Women's Print History Project, a digital bibliographical database that recovers and discovers women’s print history for the eighteenth- and nineteenth-centuries (womensprinthistoryproject.com). Inspired by the titles of periodicals of the period, the WPHP Monthly Mercury dives into the gritty and gorgeous details of investigating women’s work as authors and labourers in the book trades.

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