Mapping_Archives

As the number of digital archives increases – both traditional archives that have been digitised and ‘born digital’ collections – so too grows the number of tools and methodologies through which they can be better understood. This code can be used to explore how archives can be ‘mapped’ digitally, using network analysis to examine epistolary networks built on the State Papers archives of England in the article 'Mapping the Archives: Epistolary Networks and the State Papers of England, 1523-1540’. The paper outlines some of the core contributors to the archives, whilst also pointing to smaller actors and collections, whose place in the epistolary network and the archives are best revealed when viewed at scale within this ‘mapping’ process. This article demonstrates that – like with any other historical dataset – understanding the archives and the ways in which they are constructed is vital to further quantitative analysis, and how this is turn may bolster digital historical narratives. As such, this paper not only demonstrates the outcomes of adopting digital methodologies, and how they may shape ongoing historical research and narratives, but it also illustrates the ways in which the adoption of these quantitative measures allows for a critical re-consideration of historical sources, their origins, and the ways in which they can be used.