New digital platform opens historic collections to global audience at UoM

The Manchester Digital Collections Viewer was launched on the 28th January and will allow users to view high-quality images of archival material held at the University.  

The service makes material that was previously confined to the archive available to a vast audience across the globe.

Documents, images, video and audio files relating to a wide range of collections are available for viewing including papers relating to The Peterloo Massacre, the 18th-century diarist Mary Hamilton, and the 14th-century Italian poet Petrach. Persian, Latin, and Hebrew manuscripts spanning multiple millennia and items from collections held at The Manchester Museum and the Whitworth Art Gallery will also be available.

The platform, which was developed collaboratively between members of staff from across The University of Manchester and Cambridge University, can be used by all and will continue to grow over time as more of the University’s assets will be made viewable through the digital service.

One of the leaders of the project, Dr Armstrong, Faculty Lead for Digital Humanities and Director of the new Centre in Digital Humanities at the University of Manchester, hopes that “the new digital collections image viewer will transform the way researchers, students, and audiences worldwide can engage with the spectacular collections of the University”.

The director of the University of Manchester Library Chris Pressler claimed that “the Manchester Digital Collections programme of work is one of the most significant technology shifts for our special collections in recent years”. 

He continued: “Libraries have a long and distinguished professional ethos of partnership, openness and collaboration, and with the support and guidance of fellow experts in the field we have been able to create something special that will transform the discovery of and encounters with many remarkable collections”.

The Digital Collections Viewer is available to all, to use the service and find out more about it, visit their website.