A Critical Collection History of Nineteenth-century Women’s Letters: Overcoming the Occluded Archive with Data-Driven Methods

This paper presents a virtual archive of women’s epistolary exchange in 19th-century Finland. By harmonising metadata from over 1.2 million letters and over 100,000 correspondents across key cultural heritage organisations and leveraging linked open data, we gain an unprecedented view of 19th-century epistolary communication and 20th-century archival practices. Using quantitative analysis, enriched metadata, and network visualisations, we explore the gendered nature of these collections. Are women archival protagonists, or are their materials embedded within the collections of male relatives? Do the data reveal overlooked women with extensive archival networks absent from historical narratives? We introduce the framework of critical collection history, which combines theoretical debates and research interests from critical archival studies and digital history and combines them with contemporary digital methods. This approach underscores the necessity for scholars using data-driven methods in historical research to critically engage with digitised archives. Moreover, critical collection history highlights how big cultural heritage metadata can expose archival biases and enhance our understanding of source limitations – biases that digital scholarship may unintentionally perpetuate.