I write to welcome Anne McDivitt and James Michelich to Mill Marginalia Online. Anne is the new Director of the University of Alabama Digital Humanities Center and James is the Center’s new IT Technical Specialist. Both rushed to learn the technical details requisite to upload the latest tranche of data, collected during my March 2018 trip to Somerville and transcribed with the indefatigably keen eye and nimble fingers of Kaitlin Wright. Many thanks to the three of them for their prodigious labors.
The results of all their efforts are now available for searching: slightly more than 3600 new examples of marginalia, including the now-complete transcription of Mill’s books on law; the Mill family bible, a rare edition made unique by hundreds of handwritten additions; the published works of James Mill; and a large number of books, many in multiple editions, by John Stuart Mill, some with evidence of his editorial hand. Of the last grouping, the meticulous corrections made by Mill in the French edition of his On Liberty, translated by Dupont-White, indicates his great desire to be correctly understood by those in his second home.
Collectively, this new data represents a substantial addition to Mill Marginalia Online, which has now digitized nearly 25% of all marginalia in Mill’s library. Corrections, refinements, and technical updates are also ongoing, so please check back now and again to see what’s new.
—Albert Pionke, Project Director