As a critical archive, MEL will provide a digital workspace in which users can pull together MEL images, texts, and other images and texts related to sources and adaptations to create new scholarship, for either presentations, publication, or the classroom. Our tentative title for this workspace is Melville ReMix.

An early attempt at the tool led to the invention of Annotation Studio, developed by HyperStudio, the digital lab for MIT’s Comparative Media Studies and Writing program. Already, we have incorporated Annotation Studio technology into MELCat and Juxta Editions. Annotation Studio is likely to be a foundational technology in Melville ReMix development as well.

In anticipation of Melville ReMix, MEL’s Art Group has used MELCat to upload images and enter metadata related to Melville’s use of art in Moby-Dick. We will also use Melville ReMix to sort and assemble images from Melville’s art print collection, located in three disparate collections: Berkshire Athenaeum, Osborne Collection (Southwestern University), Reese Collection of the Melville Archive (New Bedford Whaling Museum). To view selected images in the MEL Archive, go to Arts & Prints.