Project Information

Welcome to the George Eliot Archive, a digital repository of research resources for those studying the woman who wrote as George Eliot, one of the most important, successful, and enduringly beloved authors of the Victorian era. 

Here you will discover thousands of public domain images and documents pertaining to the life and works of George Eliot. We curate and provide editorial apparatus for understanding their original purposes and sources. We also develop and host software applications and tools for analyzing George Eliot’s texts, and born-digital, interactive data visualization projects such as maps, networks, and timelines.

The George Eliot Archive project was launched in December 2018, on the eve of Eliot’s bicentenary, after two years of preparation. For more on our project's development, please refer to the Project History tab. 

The project would be inconsequential without two groups of contributors: (1) the dedicated graduate and undergraduate research assistants who are constantly adding to the content and improving the functionality of our websites, and (2) the expert advisory editors (my generous colleagues in the field) who guide and encourage us. For a list of these essential collaborators, please refer to the Project Staff tab.

For nearly two decades, my scholarship has focused on George Eliot. I think of the George Eliot projects as the culmination of my previous work and teaching in the fields of literature, biography, publishing, and digital humanities.

I am an Associate Research Professor and Digital Humanities Coordinator at Auburn University Libraries in Alabama. From 2013-2021, I was a faculty member in English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) and a fellow with the Center for Digital Research in the Humanities. UNL was an early leader in digital humanities research, and I am grateful for the generous support I received from their College of Arts and Sciences, the Center for Undergraduate Research, the English department, and the Center for Digital Research in the Humanities as the George Eliot Archive was launched.

George Eliot Archive continues to develop at Auburn, especially in terms of technological innovations. I have been fortunate to partner as Co-PI with the brilliant and talented web developer Brad Hughes, who encourages our computer science students to create cutting-edge applications, leads them through any programming difficulties, and ensures our websites are optimally functioning. Semester by semester, our team is working every day to develop the George Eliot Archive and its sister sites:

1. George Eliot Review Online (in partnership with the George Eliot Fellowship), the digitized version of this important peer-reviewed journal from 1970 to the present issue; and

2. George Eliot Scholars digital commons, where we are collecting open-access journal articles and providing a forum where current scholars may contribute their own works on George Eliot, including articles, blogs, syllabi, conference papers, videos, adaptations, and more. 

These three related, ever-expanding digital projects, along with a new digital archive called Alabama Authors of the 19th and 20th Centuries, would not have been possible without the talented students I am blessed to work with semester by semester, year by year. To everyone who has helped build this project over the years, and to all the researchers who are using it, thank you. I love this work and am sincerely grateful for your support.

All my best,

Bev

(aka “Dr. Bev”)