Skip to main content

Major new project to reveal new insights into 19th Century British and other immigrant sailors in the US Navy

 A new UK-led project will help tell the stories of British and other immigrant sailors in the American Civil War in ways never before possible. TheCivil War BluejacketsProject—so named because of the distinctive uniform worn by U.S. Civil War sailors—is a collaboration between historians at the Northumbria University and information and data scientists at the University of Sheffield and the University of Koblenz-Landau. Funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council, the project launches on 6 September 2022 with a call for citizen volunteers to help transcribe tens of thousands of Civil War “Muster Rolls”, documents that were carried on board U.S. ships and which capture the personal details of the c.118,000 men who fought on water for the Union between 1861 and 1865. The project team are making use of the online Zooniverse platform to share tens of thousands of these Muster Rolls, and are asking the public to help in revealing their contents. Principal Investigator Professor David Gleeson of Northumbria University said: 

“We are calling on “people-power” to help us tell the story of common sailors in the Civil War in a way never before possible. We estimate that over 30 percent of these men were British or Irish immigrants—another 15 percent were African American. With your help, we aim to create a new freely available database of these men, and use the information generated by citizen scientists to explore the social and military experiences of these ordinary people in a way never before possible.” 


As well as using public transcriptions to decipher the Muster Rolls, the team also hope to develop new software to allow computers to “read” 19th century hand-writing. Co-Investigator Dr Morgan Harvey of the University of Sheffield commented:  

“By comparing the public’s transcriptions with the original 19th century hand-writing, we hope to “train” computers to assist in the reading and deciphering of historic documents, thereby creating a major new tool in the armoury of anyone interested in uncovering the past.” 


Included among the stories the team hope to reveal are the thousands of English, Scottish and Welsh men who helped the U.S. battle the Confederacy on water. Sheffield is playing an important role in the research, which also promises to reveal much about some of the many Sheffield and Yorkshire men who served the U.S. Navy. They include colourful characters like Francis Neep, a 22-year-old Sheffield seaman, who entered the fight for the United States sporting tattoos of a knight, crucifix, shield, ship and anchor; and Sheffielder John Greenwood, who was still serving the deck of the USS James Adger when well into his fifties at the time the Civil War came to a close.  


Those interested in finding out more about the project can visit the www.civilwarbluejackets.com website, or go direct to the Zooniverse Civil War Bluejackets page at https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/bluejackets/civil-war-bluejackets  

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

My Time in Sheffield as a Visiting Researcher - Dr Abdulhalik Pinar

Returning to Sheffield after more than a decade has been a mixture of nostalgia and new opportunities. I first came here in 2011 to complete my MA in Librarianship, and now, I find myself back as a visiting scholar at the Information School. My time as a visiting researcher at the University of Sheffield has been truly rewarding. I am an academic staff at Harran University in Turkey supported for this visit by Tubitak (The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey). This visit has been a great opportunity for my academic and professional development. I am conducting research on artificial intelligence within GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums) institutions. I have especially valued the support of my supervisor Dr. Andrew Cox who has guided me through this process. He is an extremely helpful, supportive and understanding person. The University of Sheffield has provided me with an excellent working environment, surrounded by helpful staff and dynamic research...

Tools for Life: Data Sharing and Public Health

 Data is the lifeblood of our digital society, but how our personal information is stored and shared is an understandably contentious issue. ‘ Tools for Life: Data Sharing and Public Health ’, a 20-month public engagement project which concluded in March 2021 and was headed by Information School Lecturer Dr Jonathan Foster, looked into the issues surrounding this idea in the context of patient data, with consideration of this issue being particularly important against the backdrop of the current NHS opt-out system for consent. Dr Jonathan Foster Alongside Dr Foster, the project involved fellow Information School Lecturer and expert in Health Informatics Dr Laura Sbaffi, and Professor Suzanne Mason, a clinician academic and Professor of Emergency Medicine based at the University’s School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR). With Jonathan’s expertise being in Information Management, the project had a broad knowledge base from both the health and the data side of the equation. The...

Generative AI paper authored by Dr Kate Miltner among British Academy's 13 discussion papers on "good" digital society

 The British Academy has today published thirteen discussion papers from a range of expert perspectives across the ‘SHAPE’ disciplines (Social Sciences, Humanities and the Arts for People and the Economy) to explore the question: ‘What are the possibilities of a good digital society?’  The papers explore a wide range of issues, from the environmental impacts of digitalised daily life to the possibilities of ‘good’ Generative AI in the cultural and creative industries, to examining more closely what we mean by a ‘good digital society’. Among the papers is one authored by information School Lecturer Dr Kate Miltner, with Dr Tim Highfield from the Department of Sociological Studies. Their paper focuses on "good" uses of generative AI in the cultural & creative industries. Alongside the papers is an introductory summary that provides a thematic overview of the papers and points to how we might conceptualise the principles that underpin these diverse visions of a good digital ...