28:null 29:["$","title",null,{"children":"Searching Mitchell’s Press Directories | Mia | Observable"}] 2e:T721,# Searching Mitchell’s Press Directories

_tldr: This notebook allows users explore metadata about historical British newspapers. For example, you can sort newspapers by their political leaning, price, or place of publication. Right now, it’s only possible to search by political leaning. Stay tuned for updates!_

Mitchell’s Press Directories are an important reference source for historians. They were printed yearly in the 19th and 20th centuries principally so that advertisers could target specific titles for their business. The Press Directories were useful at the time because they reported key details, such as a paper’s ownership, its political leaning, how often it was published, where it was distributed, and of course its price. Today, this information provides a foundation on which to understand basic features of the (nearly) total landscape of British newspapers, and how this changed over time.

The visualisations here make it possible to easily explore the digitised Mitchell’s data. To introduce you to Mitchell’s, we’ll focus on three main pieces of information: 1. Political leaning 2. Price (_coming soon!_) 3. Place of publication and circulation (_coming soon!_)

The data in this notebook has been prepared by Kaspar Beelen as part of the “Environmental Scan” method. See more about that in [this recent paper](https://academic.oup.com/dsh/advance-article/doi/10.1093/llc/fqac037/6644524). Code used to produce the data & data for ES available [here](https://github.com/Living-with-machines/PressDirectories).2f:Tb8e,viewof settings = { const title = ""; const counties = _.uniq(_data.map((d) => d.county)).sort(); const style = html` `; const container = view` ${style}

${title ? `

${title}

` : ``}

Filtering

${[ "selectTop", Inputs.range([2, 10], { value: 3, label: "Show # top political leanings", step: 1 }) ]} ${[ "includeCounties", Inputs.select(counties, { label: "Display counties", multiple: true, value: [ "leicestershire", "northamptonshire", "oxfordshire", "warwickshire" ] }) ]}

Hold command + press to select multiple

Display

${[ "type", Inputs.toggle({ label: "Logarithmic scale", value: false }) ]} ${[ "faceting", Inputs.toggle({ label: "Graph by political leaning", value: false }) ]} ${[ "heightPerRow", Inputs.range([100, 500], { value: 200, label: "Height per row", step: 50 }) ]}

${[ "year", Scrubber(allYears, { initial: allYears[0], format: (date) => date.getFullYear(), delay: 100, autoplay: true, loop: true, loopDelay: 5000 }) ]}

`; yield container; }30:T56d,{ const question = ``; let _html = settings.selectTop > 4 ? `

` : ``; _html += settings.selectTop > 4 ? question : ""; _html += settings.selectTop > 4 ? `You may get a better view by choosing to graph by political leaning.` : ""; _html += settings.selectTop > 4 ? "

" : ""; // set(viewof settings.faceting, true) _html += !settings.faceting ? `

${swatch( data.leaningColors )}

` : `

`; const node = html`${_html}`; yield node; d3.select(node) .select("span#setGraph") .on("click", function () { set(viewof settings.faceting, true); d3.select(this).remove(); }); settings.faceting ? yield html`

` : undefined; }31:T6c7,plotLeanings = addTooltips( Plot.plot({ y: { grid: true, nice: true, label: "Number of newspaper titles with political leaning across entire dataset", type: settings.type ? "log" : "linear" }, // x: { // nice: true // }, width, marginTop: settings.faceting ? 60 : 20, height: settings.faceting ? 250 : 150, style: { backgroundColor: "#FFF4EB", overflow: "visible", padding: "10px" }, facet: settings.faceting ? { data: data.leanings, x: "leaning", label: null, marginRight: 2000 } : {}, marks: [ settings.faceting ? Plot.frame({ stroke: "lightgray", strokeWidth: 0.5 }) : undefined, Plot.ruleY([0]), Plot.lineY(data.leanings, { x: "year", y: "count", z: "leaning", curve: settings.curve, stroke: (d) => data.leaningColors[d.leaning], strokeWidth: 1 }), Plot.dot(data.leanings, { x: "year", y: "count", mark: "x", fill: (d) => data.leaningColors[d.leaning], r: 2, title: (d) => `${d.count} ${ d.leaning } newspapers in ${d.year.getFullYear()} across the Mitchell’s Press Directory dataset` }), Plot.text( data.leanings, Plot.selectLast({ x: "year", y: "count", z: "leaning", fill: (d) => data.leaningColors[d.leaning], text: (d) => `${d.leaning} (${d.count})`, textAnchor: "start", dx: 10 }) ) ], marginRight: 225 }), { fill: (d) => data.leaningColors[d.leaning], r: 6 } )32:T727,plotLeanings2 = addTooltips( Plot.plot({ y: { grid: true, nice: true, label: "Number of newspaper titles with political leaning in selected county", type: settings.type ? "log" : "linear" }, // x: { // nice: true // }, width: width - 100, style: { overflow: "visible", padding: "10px" }, height: _.uniqBy(data.leaningByCounty, (d) => d.county).length * settings.heightPerRow, facet: { data: data.leaningByCounty, y: "county", x: settings.faceting ? "leaning" : undefined, label: null }, marks: [ Plot.frame({ stroke: "lightgray", strokeWidth: 0.5 }), Plot.ruleY([0]), Plot.lineY(data.leaningByCounty, { x: "year", y: "count", z: "leaning", curve: "monotone-x", //settings.curve stroke: (d) => data.leaningColors[d.leaning], strokeWidth: 1 }), Plot.dot(data.leaningByCounty, { x: "year", y: "count", mark: "x", fill: (d) => data.leaningColors[d.leaning], r: 2, title: (d) => `${d.count} ${d.leaning} newspapers in ${ d.county } in ${d.year.getFullYear()}` }), settings.faceting ? undefined : Plot.text( data.leaningByCounty, Plot.selectLast({ x: "year", y: "count", z: "leaning", fill: (d) => data.leaningColors[d.leaning], //strokeWidth: 0.4, text: (d) => `${d.leaning} (${d.count})`, textAnchor: "start", dx: 10 }) ) ], marginRight: settings.faceting ? 125 : 125, marginTop: 0 }), { fill: (d) => data.leaningColors[d.leaning], r: 6 } )33:T64f,data = { const allLeanings = getLeanings(getYears(_data)); const leaningsByCounty = Object.fromEntries( settings.includeCounties.map((county) => [ county, _data.filter((d) => d.county === county) ]) ); const allLeaningsAcrossCounties = _.flatten( Object.values(leaningsByCounty).map((arr) => _.flatten(arr.map((d) => d.politicalLeanings)) ) ); const topLeanings = Array.from(count(allLeaningsAcrossCounties)) .sort((a, b) => b[1] - a[1]) .slice(0, settings.selectTop) .map((d) => d[0]); console.log( allLeanings.findIndex((d) => d.leaning === "liberal" && d.count === 1) ); const leaningColors = Object.fromEntries( d3 .quantize( d3.piecewise(d3.interpolateRgb.gamma(2.2), ["red", "green", "blue"]), settings.selectTop ) .map((color, idx) => [topLeanings[idx], color]) ); const leaningByCounty = _.flatten( _.flatten( settings.includeCounties.map((county) => { const leanings = getLeanings( getYears(_data.filter((d) => d.county === county)) ).filter((o) => topLeanings.includes(o.leaning)); return [leanings.map((o) => Object.assign(o, { county }))]; }) ) ) .sort((a, b) => a.year - b.year) .filter((d) => d.year <= settings.year); const _leanings = allLeanings .filter((d) => topLeanings.includes(d.leaning)) .filter((d) => { if (d.count <= 1) console.log("Filtering", d); return d.year <= settings.year && d.count > 1; }); return { leaningByCounty, leaningColors, leanings: _leanings }; }34:[] 2c:{"id":"162438d2bc35bccb","slug":null,"title":"Searching Mitchell’s Press Directories","thumbnail":"fa5ff1eddddf62b2f622e15b2813bf5df88db7e133c9e945d7187c237fa76fdd","access_level":"public","create_time":"$D2022-12-19T17:00:40.121Z","update_time":"$D2022-12-19T17:03:35.455Z","view_time":null,"first_public_time":"$D2022-12-19T17:00:40.121Z","has_unpublished_edits":null,"fork":true,"stars":0,"starred":false,"owner":{"type":"team","id":"e942782517be7c62","login":"mialondon","name":"Mia","avatar_url":"https://avatars-next.observableusercontent.com/718fd54635137cd9a35241d6876cfe3ece957358071d65ea1440f3a156a753a4","tier":"starter_2024"},"version":606,"publish_version":null,"role":null,"authored":false,"authors":[{"type":"individual","id":"13b7cd0ffd6e4a92","login":"mialondon","name":"Mia","avatar_url":"https://avatars-next.observableusercontent.com/718fd54635137cd9a35241d6876cfe3ece957358071d65ea1440f3a156a753a4","tier":null}],"members":[{"type":"individual","id":"13b7cd0ffd6e4a92","login":"mialondon","name":"Mia","avatar_url":"https://avatars-next.observableusercontent.com/718fd54635137cd9a35241d6876cfe3ece957358071d65ea1440f3a156a753a4","tier":null,"role":"editor"}],"comments":[],"custom_thumbnail":false,"trashed":false,"lapsed":null,"subscribed":null,"forks":0,"collection":null,"type":"notebook","body":{"titling":"auto","title":"Searching Mitchell’s Press Directories","cells":[{"id":0,"value":"$2e","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"md","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","output":"","database":"$undefined"},{"id":120,"value":"

","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"html","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","output":"","database":"$undefined"},{"id":236,"value":"## Political leaning","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"md","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","output":"","database":"$undefined"},{"id":9,"value":"$2f","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"ojs","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","output":"$undefined","database":"$undefined"},{"id":216,"value":"$30","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"ojs","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","output":"$undefined","database":"$undefined"},{"id":162,"value":"$31","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"ojs","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","output":"$undefined","database":"$undefined"},{"id":582,"value":"data.leanings.map((d) => d.leaning).includes(\"liberal\")\n ? html`

Note that the data for liberal newspapers in 1886 has been removed in the graph above due to inconsistencies in the data.

`\n : html``","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"ojs","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","output":"$undefined","database":"$undefined"},{"id":78,"value":"$32","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"ojs","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","output":"$undefined","database":"$undefined"},{"id":155,"value":"html`

${swatch(\n data.leaningColors\n)}

`","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"ojs","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","output":"$undefined","database":"$undefined"},{"id":11,"value":"

","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"html","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","output":"","database":"$undefined"},{"id":14,"value":"## Appendix","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"md","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","output":"","database":"$undefined"},{"id":352,"value":"function set(input, value) {\n input.value = value;\n input.dispatchEvent(new Event(\"input\", { bubbles: true }));\n}","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"ojs","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","output":"$undefined","database":"$undefined"},{"id":101,"value":"$33","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"ojs","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","output":"$undefined","database":"$undefined"},{"id":20,"value":"import {\n Scrubber,\n addTooltips,\n view,\n serialize,\n data as _data,\n leanings,\n allYears,\n count,\n getLeanings,\n getYears\n} from \"61fbc30a2583f521\"","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"ojs","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","output":"$undefined","database":"$undefined"},{"id":336,"value":"swatch = (o) => {\n const getHTML = (label, color) =>\n `

${label}

`;\n const elements = Object.entries(o)\n .map(([label, color]) => getHTML(label, color))\n .join(\"\");\n return `

${elements}

`;\n}","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"ojs","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","output":"$undefined","database":"$undefined"},{"id":240,"value":"\n\n","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"html","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","output":"","database":"$undefined"}],"files":"$W34","stdlib":"1"}} 2d:"$2c:body"