Research and Teaching

The following pages provide guidance for researchers and teachers on how to get the most out of the Digital Panpopticon website, along with some research findings from academics on the Digital Panopticon project.

George Cruikshank, A gentleman in early eighteenth century costume, seated at a table and reading a letter by the light of a candle, holding it close to the paper and accidentally setting his hat alight (c. mid-19th century). British Museum Prints and Drawings, number 1978,U.3377. © Trustees of the British Museum.

The Digital Panopticon website has been designed to facilitate historical research into the lives of Old Bailey convicts sentenced to transportation or imprisonment between the later eighteenth and early twentieth centuries - along with crime, justice and punishment in this period more broadly - as it is evidenced by the surviving records.

For more information on the historical subjects and records covered by the Digital Panopticon website, see the Historical Background and Records pages.

Thematic Research Guides

These guides are designed to support research into specific themes using the Digital Panopticon website.

Research Themes

In addition to creating this website, the Digital Panopticon project has conducted research into a series of themes associated with convict lives, transportation, imprisonment and digital history. The pages below provide brief summaries of the project's key findings in relation to each of its core themes.

Teaching Guides

Guides for school teachers and lecturers on how to use the Digital Panopticon website in teaching at GCSE, AS/A Level and university level.