top of page

British and Irish Furniture Makers Online
Atalay Ege

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

​

 

    Main Questions of the Project and the Preparing Team

This project includes the craftsmen mentioned in historical sources and the information about them reflected in the sources (craftsmanship area, active years, place of residence...). The main objective here is to make available to researchers the furniture craftsmen, their producers, their customers, the materials they produced and their addresses from the early 17th century to the first decade of the 20th century. Another motivation is to contribute to regional and national history in many areas of interest to academics and researchers, such as furniture and design, the history of materials, merchants and merchandising, by providing a database and publicising research and community events.

​

  The project is a collaboration between the Institute of Hisorical Research at the University of London and The Furniture Society, an independent organisation. According to the information provided, the project, which started its publication life in 2019, has a budget of 365,000 Pounds for 5 years.

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

    Content

The basis of the project content is centred around this group of artisans. Within the "Find People" tab on the site, there are various parts such as the names of these people, the years they have been actively working, their locations, their professions / specialisations and the sources from which the information is taken, and can be searched under these headings. There are also 2 buttons between the tabs, namely "Blog" and "Research". Through these tabs, you can access the articles written by the community members and information about the community. The "About" section is divided into 4 tabs: "BIFMO Project", "Sources", "BIFMO Team" and "Donors and Grants". Finally, you can send an e-mail to the editor from the "Contact Us" button.

​

  It is possible to access the information of 86.427 artisans on the website. The way the data is given to the visitor within the site is as follows.

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

 

​

​

​

​

​

    Conclusion and Evaluation

Micro-historicism could directly or indirectly contribute to the fields of furniture and craftsmen, and subsequently to art-design, craftsmanship, and city history. The tradesmen's areas of expertise, business locations, and years of activity could provide valuable insights for cumulative research in city history. The digitisation of studies not only enhances subject visibility but also positively impacts the dissemination of content among researchers.

​

  Eventually, the website is still a work–in-progress. We hope that the project will incorporate more data suitable for researchers like ourselves and inspire others to engage with digital humanities.

​

image.png
image.png
image.png
image.png
bottom of page