This year, we received many outstanding applications for the Neu-Whitrow Prize, our most ever. The Commission ultimately decided to recognize four projects. We have a winner and three honorable mentions. A description of each project is below, along with links to videos from the project teams introducing their bibliographic resources. Congratulations to the creative and enterprising teams behind each of these entries!
Winning Entry
Digital Activation of the Historical Film Collection Encyclopaedia Cinematographica
Sarine Waltenspül, Moritz Greiner-Petter, Mario Schulze — (Universität Luzern)
Visualpedia. ‘Atlas Encyclopaedia Cinematographica’ provides access and information about archived films made by scientists, universities and research institutes, which includes a film collection whose roots go back to National Socialism and whose films were partly made in colonial contexts. It was recognized especially for its ability to provide historical-critical analysis of the collection’s history and highlight the nature of a partly ‘sensitive’ collection.
Link to the resource: E-EC Index; E-EC Shuffle
Link to the creators’ video about their project: https://youtu.be/dYcRboN9F1w
Honorable Mentions
Commoning Biomedicine: An Open Source Network for Oral Histories Online
Alfred Freeborn, Michael Winter, Pascal Belouin, Kim Pham, Elizabeth Hughes, Hanna Lucia Worliczek, Steffen Hennicke, Lara Keuck, Wishyut Pitawanik — (Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte in Berlin)
The Commoning Biomedicine (ComBio) platform provides researchers with an easy to use search engine that networks existing online collections of oral histories with biomedical scientists and medical practitioners.
Link to resource: https://combio.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de
Link to the creators’ video about their project: https://keeper.mpdl.mpg.de/f/1ad6693d45014c2e8844/
Alfonsine Astronomy: A Digital Census
Ségolène Albouy, José Chabás (†), Alena Hadravová, Matthieu Husson, Richard L. Kremer, Jade Norindr, Marie-Madeleine Saby, Galla Topalian — (Ecole des Ponts Paris-tech, University Pompeu Fabra, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, LTE/SU/PSL-Observatoire de Paris, Dartmouth College, Université Grenoble-Alpes)
The ERC-funded ALFA Project has created a comprehensive database documenting the sources of Alfonsine astronomy from its origins in the late thirteenth century at the court of Alfonso X of Castile to the sixteenth century, when Ptolemaic models lost prominence.
Link to the resource: https://dishas.obspm.fr/alfa/survey
Link to the creators’ video about their project: https://youtu.be/3QrCrLl28aQ
Connecting Dots, Charting Ways — A Resource for Under-represented Histories of Science in India
Anjali Ramachandran, Deepika S, Dhatri Aradhya, Parvathy Venukuttan, Samyamee Sreevathsa — (National Center for Biological Sciences, Bangalor, India)
The Archives at NCBS has created an open access digital archive for the history of science in contemporary India, with an acquisition and archival focus in 2024-2025 on under-represented histories from the region.
Link to the resource: Chayanika Shah Papers; Wayanad Prakrithi Samrakshana Samithi Papers; Chandita Mukherjee Papers; Oral History: History of Science
Link to the creators’ video about their project: https://www.youtube.com/video/ff4xO6pzirI
