News

Legacy Search Retirement

As was previewed in an announcement earlier this spring, the LSDB team is retiring the Legacy Search feature from website. Read on to learn more about what this feature did, why it’s being retired, and what to do if you realize you need to use it in the future. What was the Legacy Search? Legacy Search was a feature that allowed users to reproduce searches conducted between the initial site launch in July 2019 and a major upgrade in May 2021. While the underlying database records were unchanged, this upgrade changed the way users’ queries were relayed to the database, which in turn affected the results for many searches. Introductory text on the now-retired Legacy Search interface. See a snapshot of the page taken using the Wayback Machine. Background LSDB was launched in July 2019 with a PHP/MySQL-based search function. When a user ran a search, the terms of that search were translated into a... Read More

Database Revisions

In addition to website restructuring, there have been a number of minor database changes behind the scenes. In order to lay the foundation for future development work, the LSDB team has added constraints to codify the relationship between database tables. In the process of adding these constraints, we identified transcription problems where events were listed without the correct theater code. We revealed thirteen events with incorrect metadata about the theaters they were performed at, which should now be correctly identified in database searches. From a user perspective, these will result in small changes to performance entries, such as the example seen below. The top image depicts a performance entry before the database changes, in which no theatre is listed for the event. The bottom image depicts the same event, which now includes information on the theatre. Click here to  view the entry on the website. Six more events are now listed as... Read More

Defunded but Undeterred

It is with a heavy heart that we share the news that NEH grant funding for “Extending the London Stage Database” was terminated abruptly earlier this month, as part of a wave of cancellations that has affected nearly all individuals and organizations whose work is supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The Association for Computers and Humanities has gathered data showing that, since the beginning of this month, NEH has terminated at least 1,434 grants worth $427 million — a number that sounds large, but represents a mere 0.000063% of the federal budget. Multiple news organizations have reported that these terminations are being carried out by operatives of the Department of Government Efficiency, who have placed on leave or fired a majority of NEH staff.  We received a version of the same form letter that many other grantees have shared with reporters and on social media. It read, in part: Your... Read More

Website Reorganization

In order to create a more user friendly interface, the London Stage Database team is restructuring the content and pages on the website. Information from the old “About” and “User Guide” pages has been reorganized into shorter, more easily digested subpages, and dropdown menus make it easier for users to navigate to the information they need. Special thanks go out to Michele Pflug, Emma Kaisner, Erin Winter, Franny Gaede, and John Zhao, as well as our Advisory Board for their input as the team worked on these changes. Read on to learn about the major changes to look out for on the website! Highlights of the content reorganization: The User Guide now contains an About the Data page for users to learn about working with LSDB data and its limitations. The section of the User Guide formerly known as “Key Terms” is now a separate Glossary page, with important historical and theatrical terms... Read More

Updates Coming to the London Stage Database

The London Stage Database team has received a Digital Humanities Advancement Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. With support of this grant, we will be bringing a number of exciting changes to the website. Image courtesy of Folger Digital Collections Currently, the LSDB contains tens of thousands of event entries of eighteenth-century performances in London. But what did this world of eighteenth-century theater look like? As we continue to expand the database, one of our goals is to incorporate playbills, maps, newspapers advertisements, and more theatrical artifacts, in order to breathe life into the rich history of London’s theater scene. For example, the playbill shown here advertises a performance of Romeo and Juliet at Drury Lane on October 11, 1754, starring a 37-year-old as David Garrick as one of the lovestruck teenage protagonists. The website will also be undergoing a couple of changes to make the database a more user-friendly experience. This... Read More

LSDB in the News: Data is Plural

The Data is Plural Podcast, Season 1, Ep. 2 Listen to a podcast on the history of the London Stage database with project director Mattie Burkert and data journalist Jeremy Singer-Vine, who has since joined the project’s Advisory Board.