Summer 2025 issue of NCAW
Dear AHNCA members,
We are pleased to announce a special summer issue of Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide dedicated to a digital art history project by Temi Odumosu with Dave Schwittek, titled “Annotating The New Union Club: A Case Study on Critical Praxis for Digital Art Histories.” It centers on an 1819 colonial caricature by George Cruikshank and Frederick Marryat that satirizes a philanthropic dinner attended by recognizable abolitionists and Black characters, both known and imagined.
Rather than treating the artwork as a static or impenetrable surface, the project presents the print as a layered site of communication and meaning. Critical annotation serves as a curatorial strategy for contextualization, aiming to nuance the legibility and increase accessibility of this complex and troubling work, loaded with racism. The article and accompanying interactive feature explore not only the historical dimensions of the print, but also grapple with current ethical issues related to widespread online circulation of unfiltered, digitized works of art with problematic subjects.
“Annotating The New Union Club” is supported by a Digital Project Grant from the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art.
Best regards, and enjoy the rest of the summer.
NCAW Editorial Team