James Cole's 18th-century Canterbury Cathedral Engravings

This 3D model was created for the Digital Humanities Assistantship at the W.D. Jordan Rare Books and Special Collections Library. This position was held by Abigail Berry, a fourth year art history and mathematics student at Queen's University. The model is of Canterbury Cathedral and is based on John Dart's book, The history and antiquities of the cathedral church of Canterbury. Within this book there are hundreds of engravings that were created by James Cole. The engravings show the exterior of the cathedral, the interior of the cathedral, and the elaborate tombs of royalty and bishops. 

The model was created in order to show James Cole's engravings in a fun and educational manner. Each tomb in the model provides information about the creation of the tomb and the person who commissioned it. You can zoom into the tombs and see James Cole's engravings in detail. The tombs are placed where they would have been located in the cathedral. The goal of this project was to create an exciting model of John Dart's book and to digitize the engravings.

Abigail Berry held an undergraduate student summer fellowship in England during the summer of 2017. During her time in England, she visited Canterbury Cathedral and found the cathedral enchanting. Abigail was surprised with the accuracy of James Cole's engravings of the cathedral. She knew that she had to digitize the book and make the engravings available to the public.

To see the model and the engravings, please click on the tabs on the right of this page.