Graphs and Analysis
Click here to view and manipulate all of my data sets using Cytoscape.js. Click on a node to see who it represents. Click the table icon on the right to see statistics for each node. Right-click on a node to see information about the corresponding person in the database, including their contributions.
Below, I’ve included some static images of graphs made using Cytoscape. These will give you an idea of the kind of visualization options you can use to explore Victoria Press social networks.
All Contributors
Above, a graph of all identifiable contributors to the Victoria Press anthologies and English Woman’s Journal. Edges represent co-publication in the same issue of the Journal or same anthology. Green nodes represent women while purple nodes represent men. Nodes are sized based on betweenness centrality. The largest and most well-connected nodes are English Woman’s Journal editor Bessie Parkes and Victoria Press founder Emily Faithfull. The best-connected male contributors are publishers who distributed the Journal in its early days. The large cluster at left shows anthology contributors, who were often well-known names in literary circles but who were less involved in Victoria Press operations.
Female Contributors
A graph of all identifiable (signed) female contributors to the Victoria Press anthologies and English Woman’s Journal. This includes generic signatures like “A Governess” or “A West-End Housekeeper” that indicate a textual gender presentation.
Male Contributors
A graph of all male contributors to the Victoria Press anthologies and English Woman’s Journal. Most are publishers (see the first graph above) or anthology contributors. By measurable statistics such as betweenness centrality and node degree, men are less connected and central in the graph than known female contributors. They are usually connected to the network at large by central female figures.
Poets
A graph of all people who contributed poetry to the Victoria Press anthologies and English Woman’s Journal. This graph is more heavily female than the full network. It also shows that people who wrote poetry (most of whom also wrote prose) were some of the best-connected figures in the network.
Top Contributors
A graph of the top 17 contributors, measured by betweenness centrality, to the Victoria Press anthologies and English Woman’s Journal. Bessie Parkes, longtime editor of the Journal, connects a group of male publishers with female writers. No male writers are included in the top 17 nodes. Men performed a commercial function at the Press, both as publishers who distributed its products, and as literary names who helped increase sales of the anthologies.