Helen Davies featured in The Johnsonian
Helen Davies, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of English and joint faculty member with the School of Data Science, was featured in The Johnsonian, Winthrop University’s student-run news organization.
Davies visited campus to discuss how she uses multispectral imaging to recover lost, damaged and illegible cultural heritage objects, including medieval art, maps and manuscripts. She highlighted projects such as Illuminating the Past, which uses her accessible “Ghost Camera” to give citizen scholars hands-on experience, and the Lazarus Project, an interdisciplinary initiative using spectral imaging to uncover hidden knowledge in damaged manuscripts and artifacts.
Her work centers on expanding access to MSI through open‑access tools and portable imaging labs. During her visit, Davies imaged manuscripts in Winthrop’s Louise Pettus Archives, underscoring her goal of making MSI available to smaller archives and educational institutions.
“Multispectral imaging has traditionally been an expensive process reserved for the most prestigious of medieval manuscripts. I am working to expand the technology beyond the boundaries of research libraries and private universities,” Davies said. “My approach advocates for the use of accessible, open‑access technologies for image capture and processing. I aim to expand the archive so that traditionally overlooked documents and people can be included and highlighted in the historical record.”