Madeline Bassnett, Project Director
Associate Professor, English
Western University
Explore the Weather Extremes historical weather database creation project, which uses English national chronicle records (Holinshed, Stow), local chronicles, letters, diaries, and pamphlets to document extreme weather and meteorological events (such as earthquakes and comets) between 1500-1700. These years were part of what is known as the Little Ice Age, a period of global cooling. Written accounts—both formal and informal—are crucial to documenting weather and climatic patterns prior to the development of weather recording technologies. We are also in the process of adding ordinary or "middling" weather records, to provide further context for reading weather patterns and anomalies.
Ian MacInnes, Project Director
Howard L. McGregor Professor of English, Albion College
Unfortunate Creatures is a peer-reviewed crowd-sourced site devoted to making available primary sources reacting to natural disasters in the pre-modern period. The project invites collaborators, including faculty and mentored undergraduate scholars.