Parisian, 19th century Deaf banquets – a different approach

In previous attempts to digitise and release a translation of the 19th century French Deaf banquets, I’ve always attempted to do so without digitising the original.

Laziness really… a shortcut, originally adopted to save time, I’ve realised that not only does this prevent others from getting their hands on the original documentation – which isn’t a very open-source thing to do with something that’s available in the Paris INJS library to anyone who can get there – it also relies on me doing all the translation… in my head.

This approach has actually ended up with something that is practically useless until I’ve finished it and it’s ready for release, whereas a better approach would be to make something available that is more generally useful.

So, a change of tack. Here is the text of the introductory chapter of the 1842 bound volume of banquet accounts from 1834 to that date, published by the Société Centrale, in Paris – digitised, and available for consumption.

I’ll be trying to build up a French version, and an accompanying English version and posting notes on the geographical and historical context, and on the translation activity itself.

I’m rather hoping that, eventually, this will end up as something that I can publish.

But – and this is the bit where I ask you for something – what I would really like is for people to get involved.

If you’d like to:

• transcribe a portion from the original
• translate a section
• translate from the French/English into another (particularly sign) language
• add an historical comment
• ask a question
• make a suggestion about how to improve the quality and information of what I’m doing

… then please do.

Otherwise, just enjoy reading what Deaf people in the 1840s, had to say about who Deaf people were at the time… I think you’ll find it very familiar !

BTW – feeds on this subject will be under the ‘DEAF history’ category, so if you’re only interested in this area of my work, then pick that category only for RSS or other news services.