Historical people and modern collections: a Wikidata exploration
In a previous blog post, I mentioned that Wikidata could help us “Find manuscripts that are in some way related to Shah Jahan (commissioned by him, owned by him, depicting him, about him),” and that its answers would be more complete as more collections shared their catalogue data. This is a follow-up with examples, going beyond manuscripts to other kind of object. As I work on enriching Wikidata’s representation of the Khalili Collections, I’m finding more and more connections to other collections around the world. This process makes those connections visible and suggests educational visualisations we can create.
It’s easy for Wikidata to generate lists of objects with a connection to a specific person. Here is the example for Shah Jahan, the 17th century Mughal emperor, which right now lists 29 objects commissioned by, formerly owned by, or depicting him. I wanted to make this kind of exploration more visually interesting, so I built on an idea written up in another previous blog post; using Wikidata’s graph tool.
Here are some objects connected to the Ottoman Sultan Abdülmecid I. Click on the image to enlarge it.
The interactive version of the above graph lets you drag nodes and double-click on them to get more information. It will also update over time as more collection data are added to Wikidata.
In the graph above, the same image is used to represent “Abdülmecid I” and “Sultan Abdülmecid I”. This is potentially confusing, but they are not the same thing. The “Abdülmecid I” in the centre is the man, and “Sultan Abdülmecid I” is a painting that depicts him. An image of the painting is used to represent the man because that is the best visual representation Wikidata/Wikimedia have for him.
My query asks for objects in collections with a connection to the individual, then gets the collections those objects are in, then gets the type of object. By substituting one identifier in the query, we ask the same question about a different person: here, Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent:
Here’s the link to the stretchy interactive version. Seven different collections, in multiple countries, are represented here, and this is part of the excitement of exploring art on Wikidata: These graphs aren’t an ideal interface for the general public, but they expose connections that we would never find by browsing a single collection, or even a national aggregator.
Can we do better than link seven collections? The graph for Timur, founder of the Timurid Empire, links nine different collections and includes a letter he wrote alongside art works depicting him:
Here’s the link to the stretchy interactive version.
When more objects and collections turn up, the graph gets crowded and difficult to read, so I deactivate the code that shows the “instance of” properties. Here’s the graph for the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb:
Here’s the link to the interactive query.
Previously in my career I’ve added catalogue data from the Bodleian Library and the Ashmolean Museum to Wikidata and more currently I’m building a data set of works from the Khalili Collections and know people doing the same for other institutions including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, so it’s satisfying to see all this work coming together.
Let’s finally see the rather crowded graph for my initial suggestion, Shah Jahan, presently with 29 objects in ten collections:
This is the link to the stretchy interactive version. Note that some art works appear on these graphs as a thumbnail image (e.g. the Khalili Astrolabe at the top of the image) and some appear just as a name (e.g. the Ashmolean Museum’s objects). Images appear in Wikidata queries if they are available on Wikimedia Commons; one of many benefits of bulk-uploading images to that platform is to improve this kind of visualisation.
All these graphs are almost certainly incomplete in their coverage, and can be improved as more institutions openly share their catalogue data.
