The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries saw a profusion of archaeological discoveries in Egypt which led to the period being dubbed the 'Golden Age' of Egyptology. While much of this archeological activity is tremendously important and well-known, less known yet equally significant are the personal histories of those present in Egypt during this time. The letters of Helen Winlock, wife of the Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Egyptian Expedition, provide an intimate window into daily life and thought in the context of early twentieth century excavations. From bugs in the food and exploding furniture, to racially prejudiced observations of the locals and the difficulty of finding formula for a newborn child in the desert, each of Helen's many letters sheds light on the quotidian and mundane aspects of life in this often-sensationalized period. Her writings demonstrate the intersectiosn of race, gender, and colonial power in this time and place, as Helen's comments about herself, other women, and other peoples around her demonstrate the complicated politics of knowledge in this 'Golden Age' created and maintained. As a research intern in the Emma B. Andrews Diary Project, I have transcribed dozens of Helen Winlock's letters. Working from scans of the original handwritten letters, my role in transcribing these letters is a foundational first step in the process of creating digital editions of these documents, which will include versions encoded in XML, following Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) guidelines. This will facilitate the investigation of the archive using computational methodologies. Our team includes faculty, students and librarians from multiple departments across the University of Washington. This interdisciplinary and collaborative digital humanities project seeks to make a wide range of unpublished or inaccessible primary sources from the period freely available to scholars in an online format. 

During the 19th Century, the Tigris River in the Ottoman Empire province of Iraq was an essential conduit for trade and travel between the East and the West. European, Ottoman, and Persian steamships plied the river from Baghdad to Basra and back, transporting goods and passengers. At present, there exists no detailed digital historical map of this significant waterway. Our project began with the Joseph Mathia Svoboda diaries. Joseph Svoboda, a European resident of Baghdad, worked as a purser on British Lynch Company steamships running between Baghdad and Basra. For about 50 years, he kept diaries recording his journeys, stopping places, cargos, passengers, weather, and events on the river. Our research project began by creating a schematic map based on Joseph’s accounts listing a number of stops the steamers made going up and downstream. Our next step is to identify the locations of the steamers’ stopping places on the river. We are exploring two options: the first, referencing 18th and 19th century maps of the river found in online map collections such as the David Rumsey Map Collection and the Library of Congress. The second option is using ArcGIS, a geographic information system with an extensive map database, to identify the places Svoboda mentioned. We expect to develop the map, either by manually plugging in the names in an empty, historically accurate terrain map, or by using the historical map database from ArcGIS to set up an interactive map. The finished digitalized map will be the first of its kind. It will help our project’s other research move forward. For example, the developed map will offer a clear visualization of Svoboda’s journey that could help our transcription team as they work with new diaries. It will also build a more comprehensive guide for scholars who study the history, economy, and geography of the Tigris and Ottoman Iraq in the 19th Century.