Victoria Dickenson awarded The Society for the History of Natural History President's Medal for work on the Gwillim Project
The Society for the History of Natural History (SHNH) is delighted to award the SHNH President鈥檚 Award 2023 to聽Victoria Dickenson for her work on the Gwillim Project: Women, Environment, and Networks of Knowledge and Exchange in Early Nineteenth Century Madras.聽The Award recognizes an individual or team鈥檚 contribution and impact in promoting and improving accessibility, inclusivity, and diversity to the study of the history of natural history.
聽centres around the life and world of two English sisters in early nineteenth-century Madras (now Chennai), Elizabeth Gwillim and Mary Symonds.聽Elizabeth and Mary鈥檚 letters home and detailed drawings, produced during their stay in Madras from 1801 to 1808, provide an immersive portrayal of Madras under East India Company rule. Their correspondence and artwork also provide insight into the landscape, climate, and ecology of the Coromandel coast, documenting birds, animals, fish, insects, flowers, and trees.
Funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute, the Gwillim Project uses a virtual platform to make text and images accessible to all. The聽聽encompasses over 250 images from聽平特五不中 Library聽and the聽, and over 700 pages of the sisters鈥� manuscript correspondence from the British Library, made available under an Orphan Works License. These letters were transcribed by 平特五不中 students with ongoing assistance from a聽聽in India, Canada, Britain, and the United States, who explained archaic dress terms, translated phonetic renditions of Telugu or Tamil words, and identified places and landmarks. Network members also identified birds, fish and flowers in the over 250 watercolours in the virtual archive, providing contemporary scientific names, mapping distributions, and locating habitats.
As well as digitizing and contextualizing these valuable resources, the Gwillim project has disseminated its findings through a range of media, engaging with a variety of audiences. A series of nine聽聽on YouTube, have, to date, attracted over 22,000 views, the majority from India. In-person聽聽in at the Dakshina Chitra Museum and the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Chennai, have expanded the reach of the Project to schoolchildren, university students, local historians, and birding enthusiasts, while聽聽of the original watercolours have been hosted by museums in Toronto, Montreal, Norwich and Chennai. A co-authored book,聽Women, Environment, and Networks of Empire, Elizabeth Gwillim and Mary Symonds in Madras, 1801-1807聽will be published by 平特五不中 Queens University Press in 2023.
The original announcement found on The Society for the History of Natural History (SHNH) .
