{"id":88,"date":"2014-09-15T18:14:54","date_gmt":"2014-09-15T18:14:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2014\/?p=88"},"modified":"2014-11-18T17:01:36","modified_gmt":"2014-11-18T17:01:36","slug":"illuminating-livingstones-legend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2014\/illuminating-livingstones-legend\/","title":{"rendered":"Illuminating Livingstone\u2019s Legend"},"content":{"rendered":"

Adrian Wisnicki was once a traditional literary scholar, digging into Victorian-era books and manuscripts. Then he came upon an unreadable 1871 field diary by British explorer David Livingstone and soon entered the modern world of digital humanities. <\/p>\n

Five years later, the assistant professor of English is a spectral imaging specialist at UNL\u2019s Center for Digital Research in the Humanities.<\/a> He\u2019s as likely to be solving 21st-century digital problems as he is contemplating Livingstone\u2019s 19th-century existence.<\/p>\n

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Adrian Wisnicki<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To read the 1871 diary, which ultimately exposed details of an African massacre that changed history, Wisnicki began collaborating with scientists who use spectral imaging to reveal hidden text. His quest eventually led to a consulting gig on a PBS \u201cSecrets of the Dead\u201d episode in 2014 about Livingstone that featured Wisnicki\u2019s analysis of the diary.<\/p>\n

He collaborates with spectral imagists across the U.S. to investigate additional Livingstone documents. Spectral imaging uses wavelengths of light to illuminate things on the page invisible to the naked eye. In addition to text, it allows Wisnicki to study the manuscripts\u2019 histories, such as what the wrinkles and materials reveal about their creation and preservation.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI look at what scientists do, and I think about how it can be pushed in different ways,\u201d Wisnicki said. \u201cThere\u2019s a point of collaboration where we have to understand one another, and that\u2019s where the creativity happens. It\u2019s really forensic literary studies.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also leads Livingstone Online<\/a>, a large multi-institutional project to update the digital home for Livingstone\u2019s manuscripts. Wisnicki and colleagues are collaborating with more than 30 archives worldwide, developing a sustainable digital platform, and conducting scholarship and outreach activities.<\/p>\n