Model of a retail shop in Basel (unknown date) – picture detail
“New information markets for the emerging consumer society: intelligencers and advertisement newspapers in the 18th and early 19th centuries”
This was the title of a seminar course that took place at Basel University in the fall of 2019. The participants dealt intensively with advertisement media in the transitional period between early modern and modern times. The seminar was very much inspired by and linked to our ongoing research on the Basel Avisblatt.
The digital infrastructure provided by the research project, such as the Freizo and Transkribus platforms, enabled the students to develop and pursue their own small research projects. So in the second half of the semester, they investigated various topics reflected in the Avisblatt, such as the trade in colonial goods, the job market for nurses, aspects of material culture, or vital statistics.
In their investigation of specific topics, the participants were able to explore the possibilities of new digital methods in the historical sciences. During a workshop at the end of October, the students practiced the digital handling of large datasets and the visualizations of quantitative results. The students presented the findings of their research during a poster session in December 2019. The posters are now accessible online:
«Intelligenzblätter» in general
- Intelligenzblätter im Vergleich (Joachim Struck, David Kiyhankhadiv)
Material culture:
- «Indiennes» (Stefanie Heeg, Zoë Pitschmann)
- Kanarienvögel (Steven Lampert)
- Regenschirme (Nils Widmer)
- Schokolade (Pascal Stocker)
- Spielzeug (Dinah Ehrenfreund-Michler, Noëmi Preisig)
- Tabak (Tabea Wullschleger)
- Tee (Delia Nutz)
- Zitrusfrüchte (Lars Dickmann, Dominic Weber)
Labour market
- Ammenwesen (Gabriel Schaffter)
- Berufsausbildung im Handelswesen (Nicolas Gebhart)
Information platform & statistics
- Merkwürdigkeiten (Benjamin Walther)
- Statistik (Adrian Schmutz)
- Todesfälle (Céline Leimer)