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February 13, 2018, Filed Under: Archives Updates

William C. Brice Collection material online

February 2018
William C. Brice Collection update by Yogita Sharma

From December 2017 to February 2018, I performed the digital processing of the correspondence between Beatrice Gwynn and William C. Brice for online access. This was completed under the supervision of PASP archivist Garrett Bruner. The Gwynn-Brice correspondence is now online and open access at Texas Scholarworks where all digitized PASP collection material can be found.

Overview

This correspondence are the first items made online from PASP’s William C. Brice collection. This small series of correspondence consists of twenty-two letters, the bulk of which were written by Gwynn to Brice. All material was processed following PASP’s guidelines for processing digital materials. I scanned letters to NARA guidelines, read each item, and created the metadata for Texas ScholarWorks as per their Dublin Core schema.

Related material to this correspondence can be found in the Emmett Bennett Jr. Collection, also housed and made accessible online through Texas ScholarWorks. Letters from Beatrice Gwynn to Emmett Bennett on the same subjects, in the same time frame as these letters, highlight Gwynn’s collaboration with the very brightest in Linear B studies. In addition, letters from Chadwick and Bennett in the same period (mid 1960s) make mention of Gwynn’s efforts.

Item Summary

In the letters, Gwynn introduces herself to Brice as a student of Mycenaean scripts. From there, the letters shed light on her Linear A and B research and Brice’s feedback.

The following letters and themes will be most intriguing to scholars:

BGtoWB19680804, BGtoWB19681114: Gwynn articulates her understanding of the Minoan libation formula.

BGtoWB19680911, BGtoWB19690105: Gwynn on the value of the fraction L7.

BGtoWB19681020, BGtoWB19700222, BGtoWB19700320, BGtoWB19700426, BGtoWB19700524: Gwynn lays out her ideas on the relationship between Crete and Greek mainland, Linear A and B, Enkomi script, and Phaistos Disk. Also significant in this regard is her comparative table of scripts.

BGtoWB19690706, BGtoWB19700222: Her transcriptions of the Enkomi tablets.

In her letters, Gwynn emerges as a woman who presents her own strong arguments and views on the decipherment of Linear B. She provides detailed explanations of her disagreements with Brice. Gwynn’s letters to Brice are yet another valuable resource to those interested in the history of Linear B studies, especially the contribution of women to its decipherment.

Conclusion

This project helped me understand and practice digital processing of metadata. The fact that the content was obscure and rich only added to my learning and pleasure.

Check back soon. More from William C. Brice’s collection, including his correspondence on the failed publication of Scripta Minoa III, and with scholars like Michael Ventris, Emmett Bennett, and Sinclair Hood will appear online at TSW throughout 2018.

Updated on February 9, 2018 by Garrett R. Bruner. garrettbruner@utexas.edu
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PASP Archives Updates

  • Honoring Yves Duhoux: A Tribute
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  • Michele Mitrovich Awarded AHEPA Scholarship
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  • PASP featured in SAA Archival Outlook May/June 2019
  • Summer Travels Recap. 2019.
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  • Archivist: A Connective Branch in the PASP Ecosystem by Sarah Buchanan
  • A Semester in Review by Zoé Thomas
  • The Phaistos Disk: A New Way of Viewing the Language behind the Script
  • “Beauty in clay: Aesthetics and script in Mycenaean Greece” by Dimitri Nakassis
  • CREWS Fellowship Awarded to PASP Researcher and Classics PhD Candidate Cassandra Donnelly
  • William C. Brice – Scripta Minoa III Correspondence Now Online
  • Aegean Scholarship at UT accessible at Texas ScholarWorks by Kevin S. Lee
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  • William C. Brice Collection material online
  • Visit Report by Regina Dürig and Christian Müller
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  • Honoring Yves Duhoux: A Tribute
  • Personal and PASPian Perspectives on ‘Mysteries Revisited’ : Alice Kober, John Franklin Daniel, Michael Ventris and Emmett L. Bennett, Jr. as Founders of Scientific Research on Aegean and Cypriote Scripts
  • Linear B Down Under: An Exhibit on Decipherment at Macquarie University, Sydney
  • Bob Dylan and the Next Generations
  • Dylanology I, II, III
  • Brent Davis (University of Melbourne): Syllabotactic Analysis of Linear A and Cretan Hieroglyphic
  • MASt@CHS Spring Seminar, April 16, 2021: Summaries and Discussion
  • Winter 2021 MASt@CHS report with contributors Michele Mitrovich & Jared Petroll
  • Islands of the Blessed
  • All Bennett Correspondence Now Online – A Report
  • Journey to Alice – Exploring the blanks of Alice Kober’s life within creative writing
  • The MASt@CHS project
  • This is Retaliation, Not Justice: Speaking Out After 9-11-2001 by Tom Palaima
  • “Ciphers”, a new play by Bernadine Corrigan about Michael Ventris and Alice Kober, with introduction and suggested background readings by Tom Palaima and an excerpt chosen by the playwright
  • A Love Letter to Cyprus and Its Coffee by Cassie Donnelly
  • Commemorating John Chadwick’s 100th Birthday by Tom Palaima
  • PASP Semester in Reflection, Spring 2020
  • PASP Publications Page Update
  • Tom Palaima – Emmett Bennett Correspondence Online
  • Updates to PASP Publications Index
  • Stanley Lombardo visits PASP and University of Texas
  • Michele Mitrovich Awarded AHEPA Scholarship
  • On the Trail of Cypro-Minoan by Cassandra Donnelly
  • PASP featured in SAA Archival Outlook May/June 2019
  • Summer Travels Recap. 2019.
  • Clay Time: A Workshop in Late Bronze Age Scripts. By Cassandra Donnelly
  • Archivist: A Connective Branch in the PASP Ecosystem by Sarah Buchanan
  • A Semester in Review by Zoé Thomas
  • The Phaistos Disk: A New Way of Viewing the Language behind the Script
  • “Beauty in clay: Aesthetics and script in Mycenaean Greece” by Dimitri Nakassis
  • CREWS Fellowship Awarded to PASP Researcher and Classics PhD Candidate Cassandra Donnelly
  • William C. Brice – Scripta Minoa III Correspondence Now Online
  • Aegean Scholarship at UT accessible at Texas ScholarWorks by Kevin S. Lee
  • Paintings and Poetry in Linear B – The Nikos Samartzidis Collection
  • William C. Brice Collection material online
  • Visit Report by Regina Dürig and Christian Müller
  • “Dear Bennett, Dear Miss Kober” by Kevin Lee
  • Emmett L. Bennett – Correspondence Online