My name in Naomi and I am a 2nd year History and Politics student. I worked on the Ford Madox Ford transcription project under the Collaborative Research Internship scheme. While I had previous experience as a research assistant, this was the first time I got to work solely with primary source documents. I really enjoyed the 8-week experience and I hope this blog helps explain a little bit why…
I worked within a team of four interns to transcribe a series of letters, documents, newspaper articles, and critical essays written by the author Ford Madox Ford. Ford was a 20th century English novelist and well-renowned critic of his time. This research will contribute towards a book collating Ford’s currently unpublished work. We met weekly with our supervisor and the other editors over zoom to stay on track. The tasks varied greatly and were incredibly flexible around my schedule. Sometimes one of the editors would need help organising and labelling files of existing transcriptions, while others were earlier on in their timeline working on the letter images. My week typically consisted of transcribing 4-6 letters by hand at the start of the week and then working on filing or labelling letters from the same volume. I also worked on Ford’s typed critical essays and letters using an online transcription software if I had time. The former task took more than a few hours!
I really felt like I gain a ‘snapshot’ into Ford’s life. He published journals most famously in ‘The Transatlantic Review’ and worked closely with other authors such as H. G. Wells and Ernest Hemingway. Occasionally, I would come across letters that mentioned his contemporaries and this was definitely a highlight of the project. Transcribing means you need to focus on each letter at a time and so my favourite part was often reading over my work at the end. Particularly in letters addressed to his wife Elsie, the love and adoration he had for her felt more like a Romanic novel than real life. Ford’s handwriting changed dramatically over the course of his life. This was one of the main challenges we faced.
Going into 3rd year and starting my dissertation, this experience working with primary documents is invaluable. Often, during earlier essays as an undergrad, I used to focus too much on the secondary literature and forget the amount of information you can get from spending some time with source material. I enjoyed meeting the other editors from different universities because it helped me understand just how collaborative academic research can be. I am looking to work in academic research as a career and so this was one of the best experiences I have had. The skills of organisation, time-management, and collaboration will help me in both my future career and at Birmingham next year.
Overall, I had a great time working with the other interns and editors over the summer. The project was flexible and varied, driven by your own interest to research. It was a great way to develop my research skills and earn some money. I would highly recommend the CRI scheme!
Naomi Lea, BA History and Politics