Brent Nelson
The Digital Ark is a database of artifacts and natural specimens as represented by surviving records of early modern collections, museum databases, contemporary drawings and engravings, as well as images of extant remnants of these collections. Initially, this database will focus on England and Scotland from 1580-1700, beginning with the collection of Walter Cope and ending with Ralph Thoresby. It will include any collection that aimed at diversity of both natural specimens and artifacts that were valued for being unusual, rare, or exotic.
Guillermo del Toro: A Modern Appreciator of Curiosities
16 August 2018
A recent special exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario featured a re-creation of Guillermo del Toro’s personal collection of memorabilia, paintings, and sculpture, mostly related...
SSHRC funding for phase two: The Social Network of Early Modern Collectors of Curiosities
29 May 2018
We are pleased to announce that we have received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada / Conseil de recherches en sciences humaines to support...
Strange Fish: an opening gambit
16 January 2018
I recently spotted this curiosity in the window of a basement apartment in Saskatoon, looking as if it had escaped from a cabinet somewhere. Varieties of the puffer-fish were popular...
New publication and project documentation
28 December 2017
The project has a new publication, on "Curating Object-Oriented Collections Using the TEI," recently appearing in the Journal of the Text Encoding Initiative. In it, I provide a framework...