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Research on Scotland's Turkey Red printed-cotton industry 1840-1960, based on a museum collection of pattern books, has been conducted at the University of Edinburgh 2006-2013 by Nenadic and Tuckett, with cultural, commercial and practice-based impacts. Specifically, it has: (i) generated innovations in collections practices in the National Museums of Scotland, resulting in public and scholarly online access to a collection hitherto unavailable and little understood, and inspiring related digital initiatives in other organizations in the UK; (ii) enhanced cultural confidence in disadvantaged communities with Turkey Red connections through workshops, leading to a MSPs `Parliamentary Motion' and MSP-sponsored exhibition at the Scottish Parliament; (iii) educated and inspired contemporary designers and textile entrepreneurs.
Since 2007 Tara Hamling has been working in collaboration with the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust (SBT) to embed research within their operations. The partnership has achieved these impacts in the area of Cultural Life to benefit museum professionals, visitors to SBT properties and a global public interested in Shakespeare and his period of history:
The University of Reading's Henslowe-Alleyn Digitisation Project (H-ADP) resulted in the development of a free electronic archive and website (www.henslowe-alleyn.org.uk) concerning the single most important collection of papers on English theatre history and performance in the Shakespearean era. Launched in 2009, the resources, which comprise 2,000 pages of unique manuscript records and 15 digital essays based on original research by leading scholars, have been widely used by academic and non-academic users, broadening their awareness of and access to key literary and cultural texts. Together they attract some 27,000 hits and over 2,000 visitors a month.
This case study focuses on the impact of research carried out at the University of Cambridge into the history of evolution by Professor James Secord and co-workers, notably the impact of two research programmes: the Darwin Correspondence Project and Darwin Online. These projects have contributed to a substantial reorientation of public discourse on the history of evolution. The impact has been achieved through web resources; museum and library exhibitions; teaching materials for schools and universities; and radio and television programmes. These outputs have encouraged public understanding of the range of contributors to science, including women; an awareness of the diversity of positions in the evolutionary debate; and an appreciation of the complex relations between evolutionary science and faith. The projects have shown that the highest achievements of scholarship can be made freely accessible to a global audience.
Mass Observation has encouraged public participation in the creation of knowledge since 1937 and pioneered the dissemination of social research to a mass audience. Active collaboration between Sussex historians and the Mass Observation Archive continues to shape popular understandings of modern British social history, specifically through work with the media. This partnership has also created an Open Educational Resource through which the public can gain a hands-on understanding of the very recent past. Working with the Mass Observations Project, Sussex academics encourage `ordinary' people to write directly about their lives within a structured environment, creating historical sources for the future.
The Penguin Archive Project, funded by a major grant from the AHRC [7], produced an online catalogue of the Penguin Collection at the University of Bristol Library (launched in 2011). Penguin Books transformed the range and greatly extended the availability of books to a general readership in the twentieth century. The Penguin Archive located at the University of Bristol can therefore be conceived of as a record of the democratisation of reading in the UK in the twentieth century. As a result of the Penguin Archive Project impact has been realised in three main areas: improving access to the Penguin Archive and making it easier to use for a variety of non-academic users; raising awareness and understanding of the significance of the archive and the rich cultural heritage of Penguin books through public engagement and media activities including a major international conference in 2010; developing collaborative links with Penguin and contributing to their publishing practice. As a result, researchers, editors, authors, publishers and other users such as the Penguin Collectors Society now have access to this major resource.
The Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies (MEMS) actively promotes cross-sector collaboration and exchange with cultural institutions outside Higher Education. Through these partnerships, MEMS research in material culture and spatial studies by Catherine Richardson and Bernhard Klein has delivered public benefits by changing curatorial practices in the heritage sector and by influencing the content and the form of the education of doctoral students in the Humanities beyond the University of Kent. This research has been used by cultural providers, engaged wide public audiences, significantly enriched the experience of a large number of individuals, and changed the policies of several institutions within and outside the UK.
The Stevenson project, in collaboration with the National Library of Scotland, has built bridges between general and scholarly readers of a major, popular Scottish author. The project helped to change the ways in which members of the public understand the significance of editorial work and book-history. Providing readers with practical skills with which to approach varying editions of Stevenson's work, it promoted broader understanding of how we encounter the work of major authors. It has also influenced the ways in which the National Library of Scotland (NLS) communicates its central mission to the public, by demonstrating how to expand appreciation not just of literary works themselves but also of the Library's collections and its role in preserving and presenting our literary heritage.
The Dr Williams's Centre for Dissenting Studies, a collaboration between the Queen Mary English Department and Dr Williams's Library, Gordon Square, London, has undertaken a long-term and ongoing programme of funded research projects, public engagement events, and publications in print and online. Dr Williams's Library is a non-HEI (owned by Dr Williams's Trust, Charity number 214926) dedicated to the preservation and study of collections related to the history of Protestant dissent. Prof Isabel Rivers (QMUL 2004-), and Dr David Wykes, Director of the Library, founded the Centre in 2004 because of their mutual interest in the field. The work of the Centre's Queen Mary researchers, including publications hosted on the Centre's website, has enhanced the public profile of the Library, improved its accessibility to the wider public, and transformed the public understanding of the history of Protestant dissent.
In summer 2007 the vice-director of the Museo Nacional del Prado asked Professor Joannides to co-curate The Late Raphael, a major international loan exhibition held at the Prado and the Musée du Louvre in 2012-13. Extensive research by Joannides and his co-curator, Professor Tom Henry (University of Kent), from 2008 onwards shaped the content and form of the exhibition, which was supported by a scholarly but accessibly-written catalogue setting-out their findings. The exhibition brought significant financial benefits for both museums through increased visitor numbers and sales of the catalogue — now reprinted by Thames and Hudson for commercial distribution. The exhibition has raised awareness of the work that Raphael and his two closest pupils produced between 1513 and 1524 to the exhibition's visitors, to scholars and to the public at large through extensive international media coverage.