Studying digitised historical advertisements: experiments, explorations, reflections.

In an interactive, non-linear interface and its companion essay, I invite the user to explore how computational methods and digital tools can contribute to the study of advertising histories. The interface was built keeping three tenets in mind: a) that the collection, digitisation, annotation, and visualisation of data is an act of interpretation, and must therefore be open to critique and modification; b) that scholars can use their programming skills to make the former visible and query-able by its users; and c) that this work is an intellectual pursuit in its own right. In the companion essay, I reflect on the development of the interface, as well as its potential to contribute to the exploration and dissemination of scholarly knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]