Dental Histories: Towards a Digital Museum

Description

The School of Dentistry at the University of Leeds holds a significant, yet largely underexplored, historical archive related to its institutional past, Leeds Dental Hospital, and Leeds Dental Institute. While select artefacts are displayed on Level Six of the Worsley Building, the majority remain in storage, limiting scholarly and public access. This project seeks to address this gap by cataloguing and digitising 20% of the dental collection and creating an open-source digital exhibition featuring key items. Following best practices in digital sustainability, the project includes funding for five years of exhibition maintenance, establishing a foundation for future development. The project engages academic and NHS staff, as well as postgraduate research assistants from the Schools of History, Dentistry, and Computing.

Clinical Photographers Tim Zoltie and Chloe Sykes are using state-of-the-art equipment to digitise the artefacts in the collection. They say:

The digitisation process involves carefully handling each artefact and photographing it in a controlled studio environment. We use a range of lighting set ups depending on the size or shape of the object, ensuring each is evenly lit, and the details of each object are visible. Using Sony’s 90mm f/2.8 macro lens, the set up provides high magnification ratios and produces sharp images to ensure even the smallest details are captured. We then take multiple photographs from various angles to thoroughly document each piece, creating a detailed digital record.

By bridging disciplinary boundaries and incorporating cutting-edge digital humanities methodologies, the project will transform access to, and understanding of, the Leeds Dental Archive.

Project objectives

• Foster interdisciplinary collaboration. The project will unite scholars from history, dentistry, and the digital humanities, fostering interdisciplinary research and knowledge exchange.
• Enhance access..The project will create an open-access catalogue and associated digital exhibition for research, teaching, and public exploration.
• Improve interpretation. The project will produce contextualised, decolonised labels for key artefacts, including ethically sensitive items such as ivory and human dental remains.
• Public engagement. The project will engage the wider community through interactive digital content and public events, including the National Trust’s Heritage Open Days. Find out more about our Heritage Open Day in September 2024.

Read more

Rae Gillibrand, ‘Presidential Smitles: The Untold Story of Teeth in the White House’, The Conversation, (3 February 2025).

Enhancing Research Culture

This project is funded by Research England under the Enhancing Research Culture funding stream. Find out more about Research Culture at the University of Leeds.