Institute of Historical Research Digital History Seminar, 21 May 2019 https://ihrdighist.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2018/08/james-baker-decolonial-futures-for-colonial-metadata-1838-present/

1. Decolonial Futures for
Colonial Metadata,
1838-present
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Exceptions: quotations, embeds from external sources, logos, marked images, slides marked
with an alternative licence.
James Baker
Senior Lecturer in Digital
History and Archives,
University of Sussex

2. @j_w_baker
Burton, Antoinette M. Dwelling in the Archive: Women Writing House, Home, and History
in Late Colonial India. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.
Celik, Zeynep. ‘Colonialism, Orientalism and the Canon’. Art Bulletin 78:2 (1996)
Greene, Candace S. ‘Material Connections: “The Smithsonian Effect” in Anthropological
Cataloguing’. Museum Anthropology 39:2 (2016).
Noble, Safiya Umoja. Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism.
New York: New York University Press, 2018.
Odumosu, Temi. Africans in English Caricature 1769-1819: Black Jokes, White Humour.
London: Harvey Miller Publishers, 2017.
Perez, Emma. ‘Queering the Borderlands: The Challenges of Excavating the Invisible and
Unheard’. Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies 24:2 (2003).
Risam, Roopika. New Digital Worlds: Postcolonial Digital Humanities in Theory, Praxis,
and Pedagogy, 2019.
Sutherland, Tonia. ‘Archival Amnesty: In Search of Black American Transitional and
Restorative Justice’. Journal of Critical Library and Information Studies 1:2 (2017).
Turner, Hannah. ‘Organizing Knowledge in Museums: A Review of Concepts and
Concerns’. Knowledge Organisation 44:7 (2017).

3. @j_w_baker
Those who have the
power to design
systems - classification
or technical - hold the
ability to prioritize
hierarchical schemes
that privilege certain
types of information
over others
Noble, Safiya Umoja. Algorithms of Oppression:
How Search Engines Reinforce Racism. New
York: New York University Press, 2018, 138-9
Image in copyright ©

4. @j_w_baker
Images in copyright ©

5. @j_w_baker
Images in copyright ©

6. @j_w_baker

7. @j_w_baker
Metadata

8. @j_w_baker

9. @j_w_baker

10. @j_w_baker
Paul
Delsalle, A
history of
archival
practice
(2017), 108
Image ©

11. @j_w_baker
As ledger books filled with
catalogue records, new books
were ordered, but there was
little change in format over the
span of more than 100 years
and 93 volumes. Not until
1899 did “Sex” disappear and
“People” make an entrance as
a column header in the
Anthropology catalogue.
Greene, Candace S. ‘Material Connections: “The
Smithsonian Effect” in Anthropological Cataloguing’.
Museum Anthropology 39:2 (2016).
Image in copyright ©

12. @j_w_baker
sites.gold.ac.uk/library-blog/bad-dewey/ Maria O’Hara (2018) Image in copyright ©

13. @j_w_baker
Image in copyright ©

14. @j_w_baker
Mary Dorothy George
(1878-1971)
Image: © National Portrait Gallery, London

15. 'thorough and conscientious' (1932)
'having worked steadily' (1935)
'of great erudition’ (1935)
‘a very good reputation in the learned
press’ (1935)
‘of permanent value to historical
research' (1935)
'unremitting in the exacting labour &
research' (1937)
'most valuable historical work' (1939)
'of the greatest documentary value to
historians' (1939)
‘importance and arduousness of her
work' (1947)
'unremitting' (1948)
‘excellent work' (1948)
‘her accustomed industry and
accumulated learning' (1950)
‘a work of such distinction' (1951)
@j_w_baker

16. @j_w_baker
Image:
Creative
Commons
BY-NC-SA
4.0, ©
Trustees of
the British
Museum

17. @j_w_baker
The Hereditary Prince of
Würtemberg,
enormously corpulent,
advances in profile to
the l. towards the
Princess Royal, his
stomach supported on
the bent back of a n___o
servant in livery…………
M. Dorothy George, Catalogue Vol 7 (1942)
Image: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0, © Trustees
of the British Museum

18. @j_w_baker
“I suppose he has some
German Method a rare
Ram this to mend the
Breed”
M. Dorothy George, Catalogue Vol 7 (1942)
Image: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0, © Trustees of the
British Museum

19. “Mrs. George [..] is a
married woman without
Children, the wife of a
portrait painter [..] and
she is described as
being a quick and
accurate worker”
Dodgson, Campbell. ‘Untitled Memo (Reports
1929-1931)’, 7 July 1930. British Museum
Department of Prints and Drawings.
Image: © Trustees of the British Museum
@j_w_baker

20. Mary Dorothy George
(1878-1971)
Image: © National Portrait Gallery, London
@j_w_baker

21. @j_w_baker
The Hereditary Prince of Würtemberg, enormously corpulent,
advances in profile to the l. towards the Princess Royal, his
stomach supported on the bent back of a n___o servant in
livery (cf. BMSat 5433), saying, I was come from Yarmony to
love you dearly, and was take you to Yarmony to love me. The
Princess (l.), stout but comely, regards him appraisingly,
saying, Lord what a Porpoise Pho!!! The n__o, with clenched
fists and contorted face, shouts: Oh Lord oh lord my Neck will
break. I can't carry it any farther. The Prince's gold-laced
embroidered waistcoat and his ribbon contribute to his
grotesque appearance; his coat is dotted with stars and orders
as in BMSat 9006. Behind (r.), a man holding a saw stands by
a small table out of which a semicircular piece has been cut:
he says, his face and gestures expressing alarmed
astonishment: Egad they did well to order a piece to be cut out
of the Table, or he never could have reached his Dinner, and
how he will reach her, God only knows. I suppose he has
some German Method a rare Ram this to mend the Breed [cf.
BMSat 8827]. A patterned carpet and pictures on the wall
complete the design
M. Dorothy George, Catalogue Vol 7 (1942)
Image: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0, © Trustees of the British
Museum

22. @j_w_baker
the (67,434), a (64,436), of (32,450), and (32,020), is (24,050), in (22,078), his
(20,520), with (18,164), on (17,568), to (15,775), The (11,659), are (11,161), A
(8881), by (7721), inscribed (7458), from (7268), which (6971), left (6596),
right (6516), an (6428), at (6366), He (5571), stands (5377), her (4973), says
(4816), who (4815), On (4699), he (4683), man (4500), two (4466), him (4310),
hand (4272), head (4223), holding (3885), one (3841), holds (3773), as
(3545), In (3317), behind (3083), large (3079), No (3000), other (2960), profile
(2949), wearing (2880), hat (2862), saying (2832), up (2820), wears (2809),
Behind (2792), has (2641), back (2573), sits (2328), it (2270), for (2177), out
(2156), over (2154), table (2099), woman (1937), three (1892), towards (1873),
or (1844), their (1815), design (1754), small (1711), that (1661), paper (1656),
arm (1655), but (1635), Fox (1631), hands (1631), each (1629), title (1625),
BMSat (1592), round (1589), men (1565), dressed (1559), them (1558),
background (1542), extreme (1526), long (1514), His (1495), its (1433), looks
(1431), ground (1398), stand (1362), Lord (1352), under (1340), Two (1337),
See (1315), wall (1311), John (1306), &c (1296), have (1276), arms (1262),
seated (1258), above (1255), She (1244), beside (1244), I (1234), Below (1221)
Figure 1: The 100 most frequent words in the George corpus, with frequencies
in brackets.
The data published by ResearchSpace under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license.

23. @j_w_baker
was, that, I, be, for, to, you, had, it, were, not, would, have,
we, said, can, will, there, been, when, they, this, could,
what, time, It, do, so, But, know, then, more, any, as, no, all,
because, people, er, should, now, years, it's, got, work,
about, if, such, get, did, or, don't, think, she, way, but, may,
your, than, new, me, even, If, well, year, go, We, And, You,
some, only, our, how, need, per, might, made, going, used,
I'm, use, good, want, just, really, thought, It's, local, What,
must, government, something, went, course, after, too,
system, like, came, So
Figure 2: a set of negative keywords extracted from the George corpus, i.e.
words occurring unusually infrequently compared with the British National
Corpus.
The data published by ResearchSpace under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license.

24. @j_w_baker
was, that, I, be, for, to, you, had, it, were, not, would, have,
we, said, can, will, there, been, when, they, this, could,
what, time, It, do, so, But, know, then, more, any, as, no, all,
because, people, er, should, now, years, it's, got, work,
about, if, such, get, did, or, don't, think, she, way, but, may,
your, than, new, me, even, If, well, year, go, We, And, You,
some, only, our, how, need, per, might, made, going, used,
I'm, use, good, want, just, really, thought, It's, local, What,
must, government, something, went, course, after, too,
system, like, came, So
Figure 2: a set of negative keywords extracted from the George corpus, i.e.
words occurring unusually infrequently compared with the British National
Corpus.
The data published by ResearchSpace under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license.

25. @j_w_baker
was, that, I, be, for, to, you, had, it, were, not, would, have,
we, said, can, will, there, been, when, they, this, could,
what, time, It, do, so, But, know, then, more, any, as, no, all,
because, people, er, should, now, years, it's, got, work,
about, if, such, get, did, or, don't, think, she, way, but, may,
your, than, new, me, even, If, well, year, go, We, And, You,
some, only, our, how, need, per, might, made, going, used,
I'm, use, good, want, just, really, thought, It's, local, What,
must, government, something, went, course, after, too,
system, like, came, So
Figure 2: a set of negative keywords extracted from the George corpus, i.e.
words occurring unusually infrequently compared with the British National
Corpus.
The data published by ResearchSpace under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license.

26. @j_w_baker
was, that, I, be, for, to, you, had, it, were, not, would, have,
we, said, can, will, there, been, when, they, this, could,
what, time, It, do, so, But, know, then, more, any, as, no, all,
because, people, er, should, now, years, it's, got, work,
about, if, such, get, did, or, don't, think, she, way, but, may,
your, than, new, me, even, If, well, year, go, We, And, You,
some, only, our, how, need, per, might, made, going, used,
I'm, use, good, want, just, really, thought, It's, local, What,
must, government, something, went, course, after, too,
system, like, came, So
Figure 2: a set of negative keywords extracted from the George corpus, i.e.
words occurring unusually infrequently compared with the British National
Corpus.
The data published by ResearchSpace under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license.

27. @j_w_baker
███████████████████████████████████,█████████
████████████,☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐
☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐,☐☐☐☐☐☐☐
☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐
☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐*BRACKETED*,█████
██*TRANSCRIBED*.☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐,█████████
████████,█████████████████████████,███████,*TRA
NSCRIBED*.█████████████████████████████████████
████████████████████:*TRANSCRIBED*.█████████████
█████████████████████████████████████████████
█████████████████████████████████████████;███
█████████████████████████████████████████████
█████████.☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐,☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐
☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐
☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐:
█████████████████████████████████████████████
█████████████████: *TRANSRIBED* *BRACKETED*.☐☐☐☐☐
☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐
☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐.
☐ = spatial
█ = non-spatial
M. Dorothy George, Catalogue Vol 7 (1942)

28. @j_w_baker
The Hereditary Prince of Würtemberg, enormously corpulent,
advances in profile to the l. towards the Princess Royal, his
stomach supported on the bent back of a negro servant in livery
(cf. BMSat 5433), saying, I was come from Yarmony to love you
dearly, and was take you to Yarmony to love me. The Princess
(l.), stout but comely, regards him appraisingly, saying, Lord
what a Porpoise Pho!!! The n__o, with clenched fists and
contorted face, shouts: Oh Lord oh lord my Neck will break. I
can't carry it any farther. The Prince's gold-laced
embroidered waistcoat and his ribbon contribute to his
grotesque appearance; his coat is dotted with stars and
orders as in BMSat 9006. Behind (r.), a man holding a saw
stands by a small table out of which a semicircular piece has
been cut: he says, his face and gestures expressing
alarmed astonishment: Egad they did well to order a piece to
be cut out of the Table, or he never could have reached his
Dinner, and how he will reach her, God only knows. I suppose he
has some German Method a rare Ram this to mend the Breed
[cf. BMSat 8827]. A patterned carpet and pictures on the wall
complete the design
M. Dorothy George, Catalogue Vol 7 (1942)
Image: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0, © Trustees of the British Museum

29. @j_w_baker
The Hereditary Prince of Würtemberg, enormously corpulent,
advances in profile to the l. towards the Princess Royal, his
stomach supported on the bent back of a negro servant in livery
(cf. BMSat 5433), saying, I was come from Yarmony to love you
dearly, and was take you to Yarmony to love me. The Princess
(l.), stout but comely, regards him appraisingly, saying, Lord
what a Porpoise Pho!!! The n__o, with clenched fists and
contorted face, shouts: Oh Lord oh lord my Neck will break. I
can't carry it any farther. The Prince's gold-laced
embroidered waistcoat and his ribbon contribute to his
grotesque appearance; his coat is dotted with stars and
orders as in BMSat 9006. Behind (r.), a man holding a saw
stands by a small table out of which a semicircular piece has
been cut: he says, his face and gestures expressing
alarmed astonishment: Egad they did well to order a piece to
be cut out of the Table, or he never could have reached his
Dinner, and how he will reach her, God only knows. I suppose he
has some German Method a rare Ram this to mend the Breed
[cf. BMSat 8827]. A patterned carpet and pictures on the wall
complete the design
M. Dorothy George, Catalogue Vol 7 (1942)
Image: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0, © Trustees of the British Museum

30. @j_w_baker
The Hereditary Prince of Würtemberg, enormously corpulent,
advances in profile to the l. towards the Princess Royal, his
stomach supported on the bent back of a negro servant in livery
(cf. BMSat 5433), saying, I was come from Yarmony to love you
dearly, and was take you to Yarmony to love me. The Princess
(l.), stout but comely, regards him appraisingly, saying, Lord
what a Porpoise Pho!!! The n__o, with clenched fists and
contorted face, shouts: Oh Lord oh lord my Neck will break. I
can't carry it any farther. The Prince's gold-laced
embroidered waistcoat and his ribbon contribute to his
grotesque appearance; his coat is dotted with stars and
orders as in BMSat 9006. Behind (r.), a man holding a saw
stands by a small table out of which a semicircular piece has
been cut: he says, his face and gestures expressing
alarmed astonishment: Egad they did well to order a piece to
be cut out of the Table, or he never could have reached his
Dinner, and how he will reach her, God only knows. I suppose he
has some German Method a rare Ram this to mend the Breed
[cf. BMSat 8827]. A patterned carpet and pictures on the wall
complete the design
M. Dorothy George, Catalogue Vol 7 (1942)
Image: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0, © Trustees of the British Museum

31. @j_w_baker
With folded arms and bowed head he approaches
from behind a hideous and grinning n____s (BM
Satires 11131)
Behind him stands a Jew with clenched fists (BM
Satires 11421)
M. Dorothy George, Catalogue Vol 9 (1949)
A Jew pedlar has fallen, scattering his wares (BM
Satires 13443)
a picture of three missionaries standing under palm-
trees and addressing savages (BM Satires 15362)
M. Dorothy George, Catalogue Vol 10 (1952)

32. @j_w_baker
Figure 4: Showing how the George corpus tends to describe men as stout
and elderly, and women as fat and old.
The data published by ResearchSpace under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license.

33. @j_w_baker
Mary Dorothy George
(1878-1971)
Image: © National Portrait Gallery, London

34. @j_w_baker
britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/search.aspx
Image: © Trustees of the British Museum

35. @j_w_baker
makingafricanconnections.org

36. @j_w_baker
If the archive itself
is a technology of
colonialism, can the
creation of new
archives resist
reinscribing its
violence?
Roopika Risam, New Digital Worlds:
Postcolonial Digital Humanities in Theory,
Praxis, and Pedagogy, 2019, 50.
Image in copyright ©

37. @j_w_baker

38. @j_w_baker

39. @j_w_baker
Image in copyright ©

40. @j_w_baker

41. @j_w_baker

42. @j_w_baker
© Royal Engineers
Museum

43. @j_w_baker
Caroline T. Schroeder,
‘Shenoute in Code:
Digitizing Coptic
Cultural Heritage for
Collaborative Online
Research and Study’,
Coptica 14 (2015).
Dot Porter, ‘Hosting
the Digital Rāmamālā
Library at Penn, or,
Thinking about Open
Licenses for Non-
Western Digitized
Manuscripts’, Dot
Porter Digital (blog),
2017,
dotporterdigital.org/?p
=403.

44. @j_w_baker

45. @j_w_baker
Histories that aim to displace a
hyperreal Europe from the
center toward which all
historical imagination currently
gravitates will have to seek out
relentlessly this connection
between violence and idealism
that lies at the heart of the
process by which the narratives
of citizenship and modernity
come to find a natural home in
"history”
Dipesh Chakrabarty, Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought
and Historical Difference (Princeton, N.J.; Woodstock: Princeton
University Press, 2007), 45
Image in copyright ©

46. Decolonial Futures for
Colonial Metadata,
1838-present
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Exceptions: quotations, embeds from external sources, logos, marked images, slides marked
with an alternative licence.
James Baker
Senior Lecturer in Digital
History and Archives,
University of Sussex