Progress update, 8 to 14 November 2014, and masses of new material to transcribe!

Welcome along to the Transcribe Bentham progress update for the period 8 to 14 November 2014. During the last seven days not only have volunteer transcribers made further terrific progress, but a whole host of new manuscript images have been uploaded to the Transcription Desk (but more on that later).

11,502 manuscripts have now been transcribed or partially-transcribed, which is an increase of 102 on this time last week. Of these transcripts, 10,434 (91%) have been checked and approved by TB staff.

The more detailed state of progress is as follows:

 

Box	No. of manuscripts worked on	No. of manuscripts in box	Completion
Box 1	225	794	28%
Box 2	470	753	62%
Box 4	0	694	0%
Box 5	199	290	68%
Box 7	0	167	0%
Box 8	0	284	0%
Box 9	6	266	1%
Box 15	75	914	9%
Box 18	3	192	1%
Box 27	350	350	100%
Box 29	22	122	18%
Box 30	1	193	1%
Box 31	18	302	5%
Box 34	38	398	9%
Box 35	286	439	65%
Box 36	32	418	7%
Box 37	31	487	6%
Box 38	59	424	13%
Box 39	11	282	3%
Box 41	83	528	14%
Box 42	79	910	8%
Box 44	52	201	25%
Box 50	166	198	83%
Box 51	379	940	40%
Box 57	18	420	4%
Box 62	57	565	10%
Box 63	120	345	34%
Box 70	301	350	86%
Box 71	663	663	100%
Box 72	613	664	92%
Box 73	151	151	100%
Box 79	199	199	100%
Box 95	126	147	85%
Box 96	534	539	99%
Box 97	127	296	42%
Box 98	220	499	44%
Box 100	190	422	42%
Box 106	0	581	0%
Box 107	500	538	92%
Box 110	2	671	1%
Box 115	276	307	89%
Box 116	505	864	58%
Box 117	360	853	42%
Box 118	240	880	27%
Box 119	522	990	52%
Box 120	18	686	2%
Box 121	132	526	24%
Box 122	302	717	41%
Box 123	17	443	3%
Box 139	40	40	100%
Box 149	1	581	0%
Box 150	233	972	23%
Box 169	187	728	25%
Add MSS 537	729	744	97%
Add MSS 538	625	858	72%
Add MSS 539	686	948	72%
Box 540	3	1012	1%
Add MSS 541	220	1258	17%
Overall	11,502	26,796	44%

During the week, another 4,500 images have been uploaded for transcription, covering an enormous variety of subjects.

Box 540 contains correspondence to and from Bentham, and his family and friends, during the years 1784 to 1788. During this period, Jeremy travelled to Russia to visit his younger brother, Samuel, whom he had not seen for the best part of six years, and the letters feature details of Jeremy’s long and eventful journey, as well as the first inklings of the panopticon scheme. Box 4 details Bentham’s response to the Henry Brougham, the Lord Chancellor’s establishment of bankruptcy courts, Box 7 deals with Bentham’s writings on religion and education, while Box 8 covers some of Bentham’s thoughts on colonies and colonisation.

A number of these boxes contain a miscellany of material. Box 9 includes correspondence, the 1824 codicil to Bentham’s will, and John Bowring’s Memoir of Jeremy Bentham, which was memorably described by Leslie Stephen as ‘one of the worst biographies in the [English] language, out of materials which might have served for a masterpiece’. Box 106 contains Bentham’s detailed plans for a refrigerator which he called the ‘Frigidarium’, a discussion of the liberty of the press, plans for a network of ‘conversation tubes’ which would allow the panopticon inspector to speak to any prisoner in their cell, and part of the journal of Bentham’s secretary, John Flowerdew Colls. Box 110 contains some of Bentham’s constitutional proposals for Portugal, Spain and Greece, as well as European poetry and literature collected by Bentham’s literary executor, John Bowring. Finally, Box 149 includes parts and fragments of a number of works, a little about the auto-icon, the 1831 codicil to Bentham’s will, and a description of Bentham’s illnesses during 1826.

We hope that you enjoy looking through this material, and please do let us know if you have any questions about it! More will follow in the next week or so, and there’s no shortage of fascinating material to work through. Thanks to our colleagues at UCL Creative Media Services for digitising the manuscripts, and at the University of London Computer Centre for uploading them.

Thank you, as always, to everyone who has donated their time so generously to TB during the last seven days. It remains as greatly appreciated as ever.