The cover of our spring 2023 issue (vol. 56, no. 4) features a map of Australia, with the states and largest territory represented by details of works by Blake. The puzzle is to discover the link between the image and the state/territory in each case.
Continue readingDuring my archive work this past fall, I was asked to markup Copies D and L of Visions of the Daughters of Albion (1793). At the time, I had also recently reread Visions for other research, and it lead contemplating about what Blake attempted to convey through only illustration.
Continue readingI’m lucky enough to have some hidden skills in Adobe Photoshop, and they’ve become quite useful every now and again on the Blake Archive. Photos of manuscripts, though high resolution, still present visual challenges when it comes to identifying near-invisible features like erasures, corrections, and other odd quirks. And while we’re trained to be extremely observant and thorough when analyzing a manuscript, the magic of image-processing software can give us an advantage.
Continue readingOur spring issue (vol. 55, no. 4) came out this week.
Continue readingThe winter issue of the journal (vol. 55, no. 3) is now online.
Continue readingMy name is Esther and I’m an undergraduate student working for the William Blake Archive. I joined in January of this year. At first, I was working on the transcription for bb35.1.1 and bb35.1.2 of The Everlasting Gospel. After it was decided that the transcription didn’t have a place on the website right now, I transferred over to helping maintain the site’s collection lists.
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On Friday, October 29th, from 2-4pm, the University of Rochester held its annual Undergraduate Research Fair.
For a little seasonal fun, myself and a couple of friends took some time to carve pumpkins! Admittedly, it had been quite a while since I took up such a task. And “pumpkin” isn’t exactly my medium of choice. I was a studio art major in undergrad and as a painter by trade, I avoided sculpture classes like the plague. Despite all this, I am not one to back down from a crafting challenge, which ensured that I took on a far too ambitious project. Particularly considering that said pumpkin will (and is) deteriorating as I write.
Continue readingOur autumn 2021 issue (vol. 55, no. 2) is out now; it will be open access for a week.
Continue readingIt has been about three years since the first video in what is now a series of video tutorials on the various features of the Blake Archive was uploaded to YouTube. It has been a little over a year since I completed the first of the handful that I would eventually write and record. Making these videos has been an interesting and valuable experience, and in the process I’ve learned a lot about microphones, screen recording, and perseverance. The original spreadsheet of video ideas from which we have been working is nearing completion and another video ideas brainstorming session is likely in order.
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