The WMR Project is a digitally sortable text archive consisting of over two hundred critical articles published by William Michael Rossetti in multiple Victorian periodicals spanning the years 1848 to 1909. The articles in the archive have been categorized based on various qualitative and quantitative attributes suitable for detailed sorting and analysis.

The quantitative attributes include objective factors such as publication date, publication name, subject (art, literature), and Rossetti's mode as writer (critic, historian, polemicist, educator). The qualitative attributes include the more subjective factors of primary rhetorical strategy (definitive, evaluative, rebuttal, epideictic strategies). Also, two key attributes are noted where they occur in an article: direct reference to the Royal Academy, and major statements of art principles.

This archive is searchable through the drop down boxes located on the search page, allowing users to sort the collection based on any combination of the quantitative and qualitative attributes listed above. The results of every search will include a list of all pertinent articles listed by date, publication title, article subject, article title, a succinct annotation of the article available via hyperlink, keywords (if any), recurring names (if any), and if available, cross references (with citations) to Rossetti’s two memoirs and his collected letters. The resulting report with citations and cross-references can be used to guide further, more in-depth inquiry and in addition, the simple statistical analysis lends itself readily to graphic display. For example:

These raw numbers may be further analyzed and displayed in terms of percentages:

The end result is a fine-grained analysis with details and cross-references allowing a multidimensional, accurate picture of William Michael Rossetti operating as a critic in periodical publications during the mid- to late-Victorian period.

This digital archive was used to produce the dissertation William Rossetti as Critic: A Digital, Archival Analysis, also available on this site.