Historic Bailey trials go online
Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2008 4:31 am
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7365879.stm
The crimes of Dr Crippen, Oscar Wilde and the suffragettes are among those detailed online on an expanded website.
Some 200,000 trials are now on the Old Bailey Proceedings site, taking the court coverage from 1674 to 1913.
'People from all over the world can visit the site for free and get a valuable insight into a diverse range of crimes, from pickpocketing and robbery to abduction and murder,' said Professor Robert Shoemaker, co-director of the project. 'These crimes were committed by Irish terrorists, train robbers and suffragettes, as well as by ordinary people. Through these transcripts, we can read the personal accounts of events by the accused and the accusations of their prosecutors.'
The site is the largest single source of searchable information about everyday British lives and behaviour ever published, said co-director Professor Tim Hitchcock. 'Besides the desperate drama of crimes punished, the proceedings give us a new and remarkable access to the everyday. History is full of information about kings and queens and wars, but there isn't much that tells us about the everyday life of ordinary people.'
The website, published by the Humanities Research Institute, is a collaboration by the Universities of Sheffield and Hertfordshire and the Open University. Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the trials run to more than 110,000 pages of text and some 120 million words. In addition to the text of the trials, the website provides 195,000 digital images, as well as contemporary maps, images of the courtroom and information on the historical and legal background to the Old Bailey court.
www.oldbaileyonline.org/
I have been unable to access the site, maybe its crashed.
The crimes of Dr Crippen, Oscar Wilde and the suffragettes are among those detailed online on an expanded website.
Some 200,000 trials are now on the Old Bailey Proceedings site, taking the court coverage from 1674 to 1913.
'People from all over the world can visit the site for free and get a valuable insight into a diverse range of crimes, from pickpocketing and robbery to abduction and murder,' said Professor Robert Shoemaker, co-director of the project. 'These crimes were committed by Irish terrorists, train robbers and suffragettes, as well as by ordinary people. Through these transcripts, we can read the personal accounts of events by the accused and the accusations of their prosecutors.'
The site is the largest single source of searchable information about everyday British lives and behaviour ever published, said co-director Professor Tim Hitchcock. 'Besides the desperate drama of crimes punished, the proceedings give us a new and remarkable access to the everyday. History is full of information about kings and queens and wars, but there isn't much that tells us about the everyday life of ordinary people.'
The website, published by the Humanities Research Institute, is a collaboration by the Universities of Sheffield and Hertfordshire and the Open University. Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the trials run to more than 110,000 pages of text and some 120 million words. In addition to the text of the trials, the website provides 195,000 digital images, as well as contemporary maps, images of the courtroom and information on the historical and legal background to the Old Bailey court.
www.oldbaileyonline.org/
I have been unable to access the site, maybe its crashed.
:sneaky: