Ruthann Mowry, Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts and Assistant Professor, has received a Seed Grant from the Birmingham-Illinois Partnership for Discovery, Engagement & Education partnership program (known as “BRIDGE”). BRIDGE provides a framework for mutual collaboration and investment between the two institutions with a specific vision to foster breakthrough research and address shared global challenges. Mowry and their collaborator, Dr. Hazel Wilkinson, Senior Lecturer at the University of Birmingham Department of English Literature, have received a Seed Grant, which funds projects by those interested in developing new research relationships with colleagues at UoB and Illinois.

Their project fosters collaboration between Emblematica (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign), a digital library of emblem books, and Compositor (University of Birmingham), a database of printers’ ornaments. Both databases use digital technologies to explore the early modern text-image interface, investigating how readers engaged with visual motifs. Mowry and Wilkinson hypothesize that “emblem-literacy” caused readers to engage with ornamented books in ways unaccounted for in scholarship. Through academic seminars, student workshops, and a public exhibition, this initiative will generate new research, advance digital methodologies, and establish a sustained institutional partnership.

Congratulations to Mowry on receiving support for this exciting collaboration!