The Biographical Archive gave access to biographies of Marx and
Engels, as well as short biographies and photographs of their
family members and friends. The Photo Gallery gathered photos
of the Marx and Engels clan from 1839 to 1894, and their
dwellings from 1818 to 1895, with "many more to come". The
section “Others” included a list of works from all Marxist
writers, for example James Connolly, Daniel DeLeon and Hal
Draper, as well as a short biography. The Non-English Archive
listed the works of Marx and Engels freely available online in
other languages (Danish, French, German, Greek, Italian,
Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish). It seems
that the project was later renamed the Marxists Internet
Archive.
= Library treasures go online
Libraries began digitizing their treasures, and putting the
digital versions on the web for the world to enjoy. The British
Library was a pioneer in this field. One of the first digitized
treasures was Beowulf, the earliest known narrative poem in
English, and one of the most famous works of Anglo-Saxon
poetry. The British Library holds the only known manuscript of
Beowulf, dated circa 1000. The poem itself is much older than
the manuscript - some historians believe it might have been
written circa 750. The manuscript was badly damaged by fire in
1731. 18th-century transcripts mentioned hundreds of words and
characters which were then visible along the charred edges, and
subsequently crumbled away over the years. To halt this
process, each leaf was mounted on a paper frame in 1845.
Scholarly discussions on the date of creation and provenance of
the poem continue around the world, and researchers regularly
require access to the manuscript. Taking Beowulf out of its
display case for study not only raised conservation issues, it
also made it unavailable for the many visitors who were coming
to the British Library expecting to see this literary treasure
on display. Digitization of the manuscript offered a solution
to these problems, as well as providing new opportunities for
researchers and readers worldwide.
The Electronic Beowulf Project was launched as a database of
digital images of the Beowulf manuscript, as well as related
manuscripts and printed texts. In 1998, the database included
the fiber-optic readings of hidden characters and ultra-violet
readings of erased text in the manuscript; the full electronic
facsimiles of the 18th-century transcripts of the manuscript;
and selections from the main 19th-century collations, editions
and translations. Major additions to the database were planned
for the following years, such as images of contemporary
manuscripts, links to the Toronto Dictionary of Old English
Project, and links to the comprehensive Anglo-Saxon
bibliographies of the Old English Newsletter.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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