The Real Gentleman Jack: Transcribing the diaries of Anne Lister

presented by Forbes Library 12/5/2020.
The BBC/HBO series Gentleman Jack tells the story of the real-life 19th century Yorkshire landowner, entrepreneur, traveler, scholar and lesbian, Anne Lister. This remarkable woman kept a detailed diary where she recorded everything in her life, from the times she woke up and went to bed and everything in between - the daily weather, what she read, where she went and all of her business and social interactions. 1/6th of the diary is written in a secret code, used by Anne to record the parts of her life that needed to be kept secret at the time that she lived - namely her same-sex relationships. Hear from two of the volunteer transcribers who are working to make Anne's handwritten diaries accessible to the world. Sam Bennion and Alison Kirchgasser (UK and US based respectively) will talk about how they got involved in the transcription project organized by the West Yorkshire Archive Service, will describe the transcription process and will share some of the information available in the diaries, which give a fascinating look into the life of a lesbian landowner in early 19th century Yorkshire.
Website: Packed With Potential www.packedwithpotential.org/
Books:
I Know My Own Heart (The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister: Volume I) by Helena Whitbread
No Priest But Love (The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister: Volume II) by Helena Whitbread
Female Fortune: Land, Gender and Authority by Jill Liddington

[@jtidema]

What's really amazing to me is that even when the diaries were first found in the 1890's the family felt they still had to be hidden. I am so grateful that they did not destroy them but saved them for when the world was ready for Anne Lister. We are, right? ;-)

[@ianbutler1983]

Homosexuality, at least among men, was still illegal until about 1968 in the UK and later in some areas of the USA.

[@chetterdd8756]

It saddens me I’m only just now finding out about Anne Lister & am utterly obsessed with learning more about her . What an amazingly interesting woman !

[@alisonkirchgasser975]

It’s never too late to be inspired by Anne Lister. Very glad you found out about her and thank you for watching.

[@chriswillis64]

Thank you all for your hard work. I came out in the 80's. I can so relate to Ms. Lister. I knew at a very youg age I was gay I just didn't have the language for it then. She is fascinating to me, such a strong and brave woman in her time.

[@alisonkirchgasser975]

Thank you for watching and for your comment. Yes, Anne Lister is so relatable and inspiring!

[@caitlinburns2184]

This is amazing! I am obsessed with Anne Lister and feel bad I have never really heard of her until recently.Now I want to know all I can about her. She was an absolutely remarkable woman. Thank you all for the hard work decoding and working on her diary. I cannot wait to get the books.

[@alisonkirchgasser975]

It is never too late to join the ranks of the Anne Lister obsessed! Welcome, thanks for watching and enjoy the many great books written about her.

[@traviataporter3341]

I'm very obsessed with her love who she were I watched the show on HBO in 2019 I'm glad they didn't burn the diary

[@cjgmaine1963]

same, same, same

[@daan4youtube]

Yesss same here. She is absolutely awesome! I will do everything to honor her. ❤

[@IrishAnnie]

So fascinated with the life of the 19th century. So much history recorded, thank goodness!!!

[@marys8626]

I'm lucky enough to have known about Anne Lister before the BBC series and I've visited Halifax Minster several times. Anne's grave is apparently located under what is now an accessibility ramp to the far left as you walk into the Minster itself.

[@alisonkirchgasser975]

Very lucky! I was there for the first time in April and there was speculation at that time that Anne's grave is located where you say.

[@nickyjones2709]

Very interesting, I'm going to Halifax and am going to visit her grave and Shibden Hall 🙏😍💖

[@SapphicUnderground]

This is fascinating to me! Thank you for putting this together, I know how much work it takes and it's much appreciated!

[@alisonkirchgasser975]

Thank you for watching and for your appreciation for our labor of love!

[@sarahsue4065]

Wow I live in Northampton, England & absolutely fascinated with Ann Lister .. so pleased I’ve found this channel !

[@sarahsue4065]

When I was reading her diaries - Ann had visited Northampton to see a ‘giant & giantess ‘ - almost 200 years to the day , something I hadn’t heard of this before

[@alisonkirchgasser975]

@@sarahsue4065 Nice to meet someone from the "other" Northampton! Thanks for watching.

[@markaxworthy2508]

It is extraordinary that Anne Lister lived so publicly in the Britain of the day. Perhaps the British were more tolerant earlier than we might assume?

[@lynnlRDR-RDR2]

Maybe that would nice if that was true. But from what I've heard it just wasn't talked about.

[@KayD]

Thank you all so much. Incredible work, can't get enough of this female energy 🙌

[@alisonkirchgasser975]

Thank you for watching!

[@KayBassie]

Muriel Green was interviewed, there's an audio recording of her saying that Isabella Norcliffe was black, and specifically Jamaican heritage. But the Anne Lister movie didn't have a black/brown woman playing Isabella "Tib" and a painting of the Norcliffe family didn't show a dark skin woman. As a Jamaican lesb!an myself being impacted by Anne Lister, even more so intrigued to know for sure if Isabella dad was Jamaican and if she was dark skinned. I don't have a Jamaican lesbian in history I can look up to. So if Isabella Norcliffe really was half Jamaican, that's another level of representation for me.

[@alisonkirchgasser975]

What an interesting direction for continued Anne Lister research!

[@buetifulkay12]

I hope Tibb was not Jamaican…according to her brother in season 2 episode 1 Tib was a greedy, overweight, awful person. That’s not good representation.

[@fabulousnewt770]

@@buetifulkay12 she could have been jamaican and still been an awful, greedy person.

[@vikingsong2068]

Unpleasant people come in all shapes, sizes and colours, etc. "Representation" needs to reflect the real world.

[@MaeveTheWitch.]

I think the *diary or her diary* serves an outlet as therapist of hers if talking these days. 🎩

[@ceekay1676]

this is really cool...thanks to the people who worked to transcribed/decrypted Anne Lister's code...RESPECT

[@alisonkirchgasser975]

Thank you so much - it was an honor to be part of the project. And thanks for watching!

[@AlexanderDeusvult]

She was a Aries like me 🙂👍🏻🇸🇪

[@CurtRowlett]

This is such a wonderful, informative discussion. Thank you so much for sharing this with the rest of the world! And a Triple Thank You for all the hard work done by the volunteers. I've worked as a transcriber in the past and it is a time-consuming, tiring, sometimes frustrating task. Hats off to everyone.

[@alisonkirchgasser975]

It’s a labor of love! Thank you for watching!

[@pambell9773]

Thankyou love all of this knowledge about Anne Lister. Amazing and so happy there was a wonderful series done about her. I love Gentlemen Jack, and am looking forward to the book, can't wait to read it. Thankyou so much

[@alisonkirchgasser975]

Thank you for watching!

[@SRM948]

The body of our savior….is what I read in the highlighted part. Notre Sauveur in French. Very interesting presentation. Thank you.

[@alisonkirchgasser975]

Thanks for watching and for confirming!

[@lorraineshaw2311]

Went to Shibden Hall a few weeks ago.

[@nickyjones2709]

Did you? I'm planning on going and can't wait. I'm guessing you liked it? X

[@conversacionesconmipadre]

Oh my God, what an undertaking, I have so much love and respect for all those involved in bringing to light Anne Lister's incredible diaries. Specially a heartfet thank you to all the volunteers transcribing the diaries.

[@alisonkirchgasser975]

It was an hono(u)r and a pleasure to be part of the transcription project. Thanks for watching!

[@amandawoodrum7345]

Thank you for this lovely presentation!

[@alisonkirchgasser975]

Glad you enjoyed it, thanks for watching!

[@O_Ciel_Phant0mhive]

Thank you! This was so helpful!

[@alisonkirchgasser975]

Thanks for watching and glad you enjoyed it!

[@MGS17]

This was absolutely fantastic…thank you ladies for your scholarly efforts…

[@alisonkirchgasser975]

Thank you for watching and glad you enjoyed it.

[@gstar-bp1ow]

This was so interesting, thank you !!!!

[@alisonkirchgasser975]

Glad you enjoyed it, thanks for watching!

[@Udyogkhadka]

Thank you for loving commanicetion each other great service thank you sister.

[@majaber1]

Ladies how fantastic ....thanks so much for all the details of this fascinating woman...very valuable work..is there an Anne Lister society we can join?

[@alisonkirchgasser975]

Thanks for watching! Yes, there is an Anne Lister Society housed at Northwestern University in the US. The last slide in our presentation has info about finding them (KZbin won't let me post a link...)

[@samanthaswift6281]

Halifax is in West Yorkshire!!!

[@angelabaker2024]

The show Gentleman Jack portrays Ms. Walker a lot stronger than Anne's diaries do. The show also portrays Anne to be a lot more in love Walker than her actual dairies do.

[@alisonkirchgasser975]

I haven't read the later diaries yet and look forward to seeing which parts of GJ are true to the diaries and which parts took some artistic license.

[@Ladydanbury]

marianna was the love of her life in my opinion

[@slapthat33]

This was so interesting to watch, thank you! And the moderator was precious ❤️ going to buy the books mentioned!

[@alisonkirchgasser975]

So glad you enjoyed it - thanks for watching!

[@dianexuereb8889]

@@alisonkirchgasser975 hello would you tell me (as someone who has only learnt about Anne Lister) which book would be best to start with. Id like to know everything about her, Im prepared to buy all the books but I'd rather start with the very interesting stuff, do you have any advice please??

[@dianexuereb8889]

@@alisonkirchgasser975 p.s Id love to volunteer but the project is now closed to new volunteers, unfortunately :(

[@alisonkirchgasser975]

So hard to choose but a good place to start is Female Fortune by Jill Liddington and The Secret Diaries of Anne Lister by Helena Whitbread.

[@alisonkirchgasser975]

Yes, the transcriptions were completed in the fall of 2021 so the project has now ended.

[@toadscastj432]

absolutely loved it

[@alisonkirchgasser975]

Thank you for watching and glad you enjoyed it!

[@yourdreamsarereal334]

Thanks a lot❤

[@alisonkirchgasser975]

Thanks for watching!

[@victoriab3308]

Hi ladies, apologies if I've missed something along the way - but surely the diaries had already been transcribed before the TV series were made? Is this work supplementing work already done, or is it a repeat of transcriptions already made? (Again, please forgive me if I missed an explanation somewhere)

[@alisonkirchgasser975]

Thanks for watching and very good question. We touched on this briefly when we started to talk about the WYAS transcription project but I'm sure it was easy to miss. You are right that most (and perhaps all?) of the diaries have been previously transcribed and decoded but that was for the purposes of research, books and informing television shows and that work is the property of those who did the transcribing so is not publicly available (beyond the excerpts included in books and papers). The WYAS project will provide a transcription of all of the diaries that will be publicly available on the WYAS website for all to be able to read the entirety of the diaries. Hope this helps!

[@fauna5370]

literalmente llore todo el video

[@Woolliscroft1]

At 55:55 'Notre Sauver' can mean 'our salvation.'

[@alisonkirchgasser975]

Thank you, I ended up including it as “notre sauveur” in my submission. Thanks for watching!

[@flavienet]

@@alisonkirchgasser975 No, I’m French and « Notre Sauveur » means « our savior » like you said (which is Jesus Christ)

[@alisonkirchgasser975]

Merci!

[@ethylenramos7496]

Interesting and intriguing..

[@alisonkirchgasser975]

Glad you enjoyed it - thanks for watching!

[@yamil.343]

What’s up with the blocking?

[@jtidema]

I assume it's because it's a zoom call or Webex call - I've seen this sometimes when someone doesn't share their entire screen, but just one application. Whatever else they have open is greyed out on top, and they don't realize it.

[@phillipstroll7385]

Would love to watch this but with all the black blocking on the screen what's the point.

[@vikingsong2068]

Oh grow up. It's one small black rectangle.

[@nickyjones2709]

What do you mean?

[@Timeliner01]

Hi, I'm here.

[@bentleestarr1575]

Savior but spelt wrong spelling wasn’t yet standardized

[@user-ii5jv3fx4b]

❤❤❤❤

[@ash.lou613]

why is there an annoying blue box covering stuff?

[@kathyganze755]

Why are there parentheses??. So many!

[@kathyganze755]

Huge black blocks are covering 80 percent of what to see

[@rosiegreen813]

why are there black rectangles

[@alisonkirchgasser975]

The rectangles at the bottom are the close captioning that was happening during the live talk. The other boxes that occur occasionally were due to technical issues. Amateurs here!

[@rosiegreen813]

thank you - I didn't mean to be rude, just curious. The thing that comes across to me is how much Anne was attracted to women of wealth and social status, rather than just being motivated by attraction and passion. Very industrial age romance.

[@alisonkirchgasser975]

No worries! She is a complicated person for sure!

[@anne-mariepaul958]

notre sauveur - but maybe you already know

[@alisonkirchgasser975]

Yes, thank you 😊

[@aquelpibe]

Very interesting! Re the query at 56:22, surely you have figured it out by now, but anyway: "not. sauv.r" is French, Notre Sauveur, i.e. Our Saviour, Jesus Christ - when taken from the cross is too flexible, too little like death...

[@alisonkirchgasser975]

Yes, thanks, a French speaking friend helped me with that.