Capturing captions: Using AI to identify and analyse image captions in a large dataset of historical book illustrations

Thomas, Julia ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1995-5558 and Testini, Irene 2024. Capturing captions: Using AI to identify and analyse image captions in a large dataset of historical book illustrations. Digital Humanities Quarterly 18 (3)

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Abstract

This article outlines how AI methods can be used to identify image captions in a large dataset of digitised historical book illustrations. This dataset includes over a million images from 68,000 books published between the eighteenth and early twentieth centuries, covering works of literature, history, geography, and philosophy. The article has two primary objectives. First, it suggests the added value of captions in making digitized illustrations more searchable by picture content in online archives. To further this objective, we describe the methods we have used to identify captions, which can effectively be re-purposed and applied in different contexts. Second, we suggest how this research leads to new understandings of the semantics and significance of the captions of historical book illustrations. The findings discussed here mark a critical intervention in the fields of digital humanities, book history, and illustration studies.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Published Online
Status:	Published
Schools:	English, Communication and Philosophy
Publisher:	Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations
ISSN:	1938-4122
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	26 July 2024
Date of Acceptance:	26 January 2024
Last Modified:	26 Jul 2024 09:03
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/170812

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