{"id":1253,"date":"2017-03-15T10:30:08","date_gmt":"2017-03-14T23:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mikejonesonline.com\/contextjunky\/?p=1253"},"modified":"2017-03-15T10:31:25","modified_gmt":"2017-03-14T23:31:25","slug":"the-ernest-westlake-archive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mikejonesonline.com\/contextjunky\/2017\/03\/15\/the-ernest-westlake-archive\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ernest Westlake Archive: the extensive online resource behind Into The Heart of Tasmania"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post, co-written with Dr Rebe Taylor, has been reproduced with permission from the Melbourne University Publishing blog, where it first appeared on 7 March 2017:<\/em> http:\/\/mupublishing.tumblr.com\/post\/158092338163\/the-ernest-westlake-archive-the-extensive-online<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the extraordinary things about Into the Heart of Tasmania<\/i><\/a>, is that most of the book\u2019s original archival sources are available online for readers to freely explore.<\/p>\n

Stories in Stone: an annotated history and guide to the collections and papers of Ernest Westlake (1855-1922)<\/i><\/a> by Rebe, Mike and Gavan McCarthy of the University of Melbourne\u2019s eScholarship Research Centre<\/a>, makes available the digitised papers of Ernest Westlake, including those created during his journey to Tasmania in 1908-1910, when he collected over 13,000 stone tools.<\/p>\n

Here are Rebe and Mike to tell the story of the archive and explain how\u00a0two publications and two journeys became entwined.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Ernest Westlake, around 1910 from Delair, Justin B., 1985: \u2018Ernest Westlake (1855-1922) Founder Member of the Hampshire Field Club\u2019, Hampshire Field Club Archaeological Society, 41, 37-44.<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

Rebe Taylor<\/b><\/h2>\n

The first time I encountered Ernest Westlake\u2019s papers was in the archival reading room of the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, in January 2000. I remember thinking, \u2018How do I start? Which box, which folder?\u2019 I knew almost nothing of the archive, or of the man who created it.<\/p>\n

I decided to begin with Westlake\u2019s letters<\/a> to his children, for they trace his journey from England to Tasmania, and they were written to those he loved. In these delightful and personal letters I felt got to know Westlake; a tenacious, passionate and eccentric man. They make engrossing reading in their own right.<\/p>\n

\n

\"image\"<\/a>

Letter from Ernest Westlake to Margaret and Aubrey Westlake, begun 24 September 1908, copyright Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford Pitt Rivers Museum Manuscript Collections, Westlake Papers, Box 2, Folder 1a, folio 6 recto. Accessed online via: Stories in Stone: an annotated history and guide to the collections and papers of Ernest Westlake (1855-1922).<\/p><\/div><\/figure>\n

When I turned to Westlake\u2019s six field notebooks<\/a>, I was surprised and pleased anew. He collected not only stone artefacts, but memories! Westlake spoke to many settler Tasmanians; his notebooks are filled with accounts of massacres, warfare and shame. Westlake spoke to many Tasmanian Aborigines as well who shared with him their continuing cultural practices and language. In Westlake\u2019s little field notebooks beats the archival \u2018heart of Tasmania\u2019 of the book\u2019s title.<\/p>\n

\n

\"image\"<\/a>

Ernest Westlake\u2019s notes from Oyster Cove, January 1909, copyright Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford Pitt Rivers Museum Manuscript Collections, Westlake Papers, Box 1, Notebook 2, pp. 42\u201343. Accessed online via: Stories in Stone: an annotated history and guide to the collections and papers of Ernest Westlake (1855-1922).<\/p><\/div><\/figure>\n

\n

\"image\"

The photograph that Westlake sketched in his Notebook 2, page 42: \u2018The last Aboriginal people of Tasmania\u2019, Henry Albert Frith, Hobart, around 1864. From left: William Lanne, Bessy Clark (Plangernowidedic), Mary Ann Arthur and Truganini. National Library of Australia, nla.obj-133844253.<\/p><\/div><\/figure>\n

Stories in Stone<\/i><\/a> includes more than 8000 images of records. Not all of these relate to Westlake\u2019s Tasmanian journey, for he was a man of many and multifarious interests. Also included are the papers of those esteemed scholars who studied Westlake\u2019s collections after his death.<\/p>\n

As Mike Jones notes below, there are many reasons why researchers might explore Stories in Stone<\/i>. Westlake\u2019s lifework could never be captured in one book! Its breadth is why I wanted to digitise his papers before I began a narrative history. As I reflect in Into the Heart of Tasmania<\/i>:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is rare that a historian has their chief archive available online for readers. You can go and query my interpretation, or travel beyond my focus on [Westlake\u2019s] Tasmanian journey to carry out your own exploration of Westlake\u2019s life and work. Indeed, I hope you do.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Having my \u2018chief archive\u2019 online is humbling, but it has also been liberating. It has allowed me to write more imaginatively, knowing that readers can substantiate my text; that I didn\u2019t \u2018make it all up\u2019! So it is that I felt able to write as if I could \u2018see\u2019 Westlake; watch him walk up the stairs of British Museum, cross a busy Swanston Street in Melbourne, or fall off his bike in Tasmania.<\/p>\n

Into the Heart of Tasmania <\/i>recounts not only Westlake\u2019s journey, but also my journey of following in his footsteps, trying to hear and see that which he failed to understand: a living Tasmanian Aboriginal culture. It is a book of two, entwined journeys. In the same way, the book and the web resource are also entwined. They can be explored in parallel so that they inform and enrich each other.<\/p>\n

Mike Jones<\/b><\/h2>\n

In 2006 Rebe Taylor began conversations with Gavan McCarthy, Director of the University of Melbourne\u2019s Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, which became the eScholarship Research Centre (ESRC) in 2007. Gavan agreed that the archive deserved a full digital guide to make the collection more discoverable and accessible to users. He began working with Rebe to bring her notes and paper listing into the Heritage Documentation Management System (HDMS), a standards-compliant archives collection management system developed and used by the ESRC and its predecessors.<\/p>\n

However, Gavan and Rebe knew that to truly make the collection accessible \u2013 including to Australian researchers and Tasmanian communities \u2013 the archive needed to be digitised. The first stage took place in 2008, when Gavan and Rebe travelled to the Pitt Rivers Museum and digitised the Westlake Papers and related documents (3678 images) using a portable overhead camera, tripod and lights. Two years later, Mike Jones visited the Oxford University Museum of Natural History and the Pitt Rivers and created an additional 4586 images including material related to Westlake\u2019s French eolith collection and papers related to his interest in psychical phenomenon.<\/p>\n

The resulting guide contains full inventory-level descriptions of these collections \u2013 papers from five collections, four listed in their entirety \u2013 as well as the access images. But Stories in Stone <\/i>is also much more than a basic archival finding aid. Drawing on her deep knowledge of the collections and her research into Westlake\u2019s life and travels, Rebe combined archival description with detailed contextual information, biographical notes, cross-references and more to produce a rich, scholarly digital publication.<\/p>\n

Innovative, comprehensive and generous in its approach, Stories in Stone<\/i>was recognised by the Australian Society of Archivists in 2013, winning the Mander Jones Award<\/a> for \u2018Best finding aid to an archival collection held by an Australian institution or about Australia\u2019. It is both a companion piece to Into the Heart of Tasmania<\/i> and a significant achievement in its own right.<\/p>\n

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\"image\"

The Stories in Stone homepage.<\/p><\/div><\/figure>\n

The Stories in Stone<\/i> online archive was first published in 2010 by the eScholarship Research Centre, The University of Melbourne in conjunction with the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford and the Oxford University Museum of Natural History.\u00a0You can explore the archive at\u00a0westlakehistory.info<\/a>.<\/b><\/p>\n

Into the Heart of Tasmania<\/a><\/i> is out now.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Stories in Stone: an annotated history and guide to the collections and papers of Ernest Westlake (1855-1922) by Rebe, Mike and Gavan McCarthy of the University of Melbourne\u2019s eScholarship Research Centre, makes available the digitised papers of Ernest Westlake, including those created during his journey to Tasmania in 1908-1910, when he collected over 13,000 stone tools.<\/p>\n

Here are Rebe and Mike to tell the story of the archive and explain how two publications and two journeys became entwined.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,74,114,31,21],"tags":[212,211,210],"class_list":["post-1253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archives","category-books","category-collections","category-history","category-online-resources","tag-mup","tag-rebe-taylor","tag-westlake"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2X6WE-kd","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mikejonesonline.com\/contextjunky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mikejonesonline.com\/contextjunky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mikejonesonline.com\/contextjunky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mikejonesonline.com\/contextjunky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mikejonesonline.com\/contextjunky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1253"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.mikejonesonline.com\/contextjunky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1257,"href":"https:\/\/www.mikejonesonline.com\/contextjunky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1253\/revisions\/1257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mikejonesonline.com\/contextjunky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mikejonesonline.com\/contextjunky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mikejonesonline.com\/contextjunky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}