A drawing with watercolor in a letter from Maria Smith Giberne to Gerard Manley Hopkins. (Courtesy Project REVEAL at the Ransom Center at the University of Texas, Austin)

The Harry Ransom Center, the humanities research library and museum at The University of Texas, Austin, has decided to forgo permission requirements and fees in order to release a large part of its online manuscript collections to the public. Those collections include materials from some of the best-known names in 19th and 20th century American and British literature, including Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Katherine Mansfield, Henry David Thoreau, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Hart Crane and Joseph Conrad.

The release of information has been a year-long initiative to digitize the collection called Project REVEAL, a clever acronym which stands for “Read and View English and American Literature.” The high resolution images in the collections are available to anyone, but the Ransom Center asks for attribution.

“Part of the Ransom Center’s mission is to encourage discovery and inspire creativity by sharing its incredible collections,” Liz Gushee, head of Digital Collections Services who oversaw the project, told Hyperallergic. “The adoption of an open access policy, which removes permission and fees, is a concrete way we can facilitate that creativity and use of our collection materials, by anyone, for any purpose.”

A slideshow from the collection is below!