The 100 ballads website, based on a decade of research, provides the first ever pop chart for songs of the seventeenth century. It presents images and new recordings of the most successful ‘broadside ballads’ of the period, along with a wealth of essays and contextual materials. Generously funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the project was led by Christopher Marsh at Queen’s University Belfast and Angela McShane at the University of Warwick. The website was developed by the Digital Humanities Institute with Andy Watts as the lead musician.
The prize is sponsored jointly by the American Historical Association (AHA) and the Roy Rozenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University (Virginia). The prize money will be invested in further development of the project. This award honours and supports the work on a creative and freely available new media project, and in particular for work that reflects thoughtful, critical and rigorous engagement with technology and the practice of history’.
The AHA is the largest membership association of historians in the world (11,000 members). It was founded in 1884 and provides leadership for all involved in the discipline of history. In particular, it ‘promotes the critical role of historical thinking in public life’.
The Roy Rosenzweig Center honours the life of a pioneer in digital history who died in 2007. Its main mission is to ‘leverage technology to democratise history’. The Center aims ‘to incorporate multiple voices, reach diverse audiences and encourage popular participation in presenting and preserving the past’.