The training layer: a meta-aggregator / The Literary History of Artificial Intelligence
The Literary History of Artificial Intelligence
https://literaryai.library.columbia.edu/about/
historical lineageField history and indexes of electronic, generative and computational literaturehistorical
The archive's reading. A historical field resource for #186's procedural lineage, the delegation of composition to devices and systems, where the machine is method and, in Strachey's program, writer. Its timeline closes about 1970 and it records no text entering a model; the machine reader of #186's fourth column is outside what it holds.
| Relation to this census | historical lineage |
|---|---|
| Record type | exhibition |
| The question it answers | What devices, manuals and programs for producing and analysing literature preceded machine-learning text generation, as held in Columbia's library, circa 1890–1970 (field history)? |
| Kind | a Columbia RBML exhibit, online in eight cases, on the long shared history of literature and computation through the Columbia Library's holdings |
| Operator | a collaboration between the Columbia English Department, the Columbia University Rare Books & Manuscript Library and Columbia University's Digital Scholarship department; the site is copyright Columbia University Libraries |
| Evidence | exhibition |
| Unit of record | an exhibited item from the Columbia Library's holdings (a manual, device, patent, program or analysis), arranged in eight cases |
| What it records | texts, professional manuals, devices and techniques that promised to make writing easier or to automate it, and algorithmic analyses of literature, on a timeline from circa 1890 to 1970, from plot generators (Wycliffe Hill's Plot Genie, William Wallace Cook's Plotto) to Christopher Strachey's love letter program and Margaret Masterman's machine translation work |
| In the layer | not applicable: the exhibition holds library items of circa 1890–1970 and records no text entering a machine-learning model; its about page draws a line from these materials to contemporary machine learning-based tools |
| Under whose name | the exhibit names the authors and inventors of its items (Wycliffe Hill, William Wallace Cook, Arthur Blanchard, Henrietta Rose Montague, Christopher Strachey, Margaret Masterman, Harriot Fansler, Georges Polti); how it attributes the machine-written prose and poetry it shows is not recorded on the saved page |
| Found and read back | the items are shown in an online exhibit of eight cases, built with Minicomp/Wax, with a GitHub link; the cases themselves are unread |
| What the apparatus makes from it | in the exhibit's terms, 'algorithmic composition, such as prose and poetry written by machines', plots produced by plot generators with 'spinning devices or automatic number generators', and analyses that sort narrative into types; it records these as production and analysis |
| Method | a curated library exhibition drawn from the Columbia Library's holdings, arranged along two stories, production and analysis |
| Coverage | geography: not recorded; the holdings are Columbia University's; period: circa 1890–1970 |
| Count | value: eight cases; as_of: the about page, read 2026-11-01 |
| Holdings | eight exhibit cases; plot generators and writing manuals (Plot Genie, Plotto); early 20th-century patents for text generation; Christopher Strachey's 1940s love letter program; analyses of narrative types (Fansler, Polti, Keeler's 'web-word' designs) |
| Stated limits | the timeline runs 'from circa 1890–1970'; it draws on 'the Columbia Library's holdings' |
| Data access | public online exhibit; source on GitHub (linked, unread) |
| Licence | 'Contents offered with a CC-BY 4.0 International License' |
| Lifecycle | state: historical; detail: an online exhibit, copyright 2022; whether a physical exhibit ran, and when, is not recorded on the saved page |
| Version and time | copyright: 2022; read: 2026-11-01 |
| Founded | not stated; the site's copyright line is 2022 |
What its record can settle
- which manuals, devices, patents and early programs for producing and analysing literature Columbia's library holds, circa 1890–1970
- how the exhibit relates early writing techniques to later natural language processing, in its own account
What it cannot settle
- whether any particular text entered a machine-learning model
- anything after circa 1970, beyond the about page's claims of influence on contemporary tools
- how generated text is attributed in the items shown (the cases are unread)
Kept apart
- NOT evidence that any text entered a model: it is a library exhibition of circa 1890–1970 material
- NOT a corpus or dataset
- NOT a record of writing addressed to a machine reader: its items treat the machine as method or writer
Evidence
- operator (the resource's own statement):
The Literary History of Artificial Intelligence is a collaboration between the Columbia English Department, the Columbia University Rare Books & Manuscript Library, and Columbia University’s Digital Scholarship department.
https://literaryai.library.columbia.edu/about/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 1855a5aa505589a0… - kind (the resource's own statement):
A Columbia RBML Exhibit
https://literaryai.library.columbia.edu/about/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 1855a5aa505589a0… - cases (the resource's own statement):
Case No. 8
https://literaryai.library.columbia.edu/about/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 1855a5aa505589a0… - self_description (the resource's own statement):
This exhibition explores the long, shared history of literature and computation through the Columbia Library’s holdings.
https://literaryai.library.columbia.edu/about/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 1855a5aa505589a0… - period (the resource's own statement):
Following a timeline from circa 1890–1970, this exhibition explores professional manuals, devices, and techniques that promised to make writing easier—and even to automate it.
https://literaryai.library.columbia.edu/about/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 1855a5aa505589a0… - makes (the resource's own statement):
showcases examples of algorithmic composition, such as prose and poetry written by machines, alongside literature written with the aid of algorithmic and combinatorial devices.
https://literaryai.library.columbia.edu/about/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 1855a5aa505589a0… - two_stories (the resource's own statement):
This exhibition broadly tracks two broad stories related to the literary history of AI: production and analysis.
https://literaryai.library.columbia.edu/about/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 1855a5aa505589a0… - plot_generators (the resource's own statement):
such as Wycliffe Hill’s Plot Genies, and plot generators such as William Wallace Cook’s Plotto series.
https://literaryai.library.columbia.edu/about/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 1855a5aa505589a0… - patents (the resource's own statement):
Automated text generation catalyzed a wave of early 20th-century patents, from Arthur Blanchard’s “movie-writer” machine and Henrietta Rose Montague’s “name selector.”
https://literaryai.library.columbia.edu/about/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 1855a5aa505589a0… - devices (the resource's own statement):
Some how-to manuals incorporated simple plot generators, with spinning devices or automatic number generators that would guide would-be novelists past writers’ block.
https://literaryai.library.columbia.edu/about/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 1855a5aa505589a0… - strachey (the resource's own statement):
from Christopher Strachey, who wrote a love letter program in the 1940s, to Margaret Masterman, a linguist who pioneered the use of computers to aid automatic translation.
https://literaryai.library.columbia.edu/about/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 1855a5aa505589a0… - influence (the resource's own statement):
influence and shape contemporary, machine learning-based tools used in automating aviation accident reports and defense logistics.
https://literaryai.library.columbia.edu/about/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 1855a5aa505589a0… - analysis (the resource's own statement):
The second story tracks the use of algorithms to analyze literature
https://literaryai.library.columbia.edu/about/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 1855a5aa505589a0… - polti (the resource's own statement):
Georges Polti’s Les trente-six situations dramatiques (1895)
https://literaryai.library.columbia.edu/about/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 1855a5aa505589a0… - keeler (the resource's own statement):
Harry Stephen Keeler’s “web-word” designs
https://literaryai.library.columbia.edu/about/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 1855a5aa505589a0… - storage (the resource's own statement):
Information storage was increasingly understood to be central both to analysis and to composition.
https://literaryai.library.columbia.edu/about/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 1855a5aa505589a0… - license (the resource's own statement):
© Copyright 2022, Columbia University Libraries. Contents offered with a CC-BY 4.0 International License
https://literaryai.library.columbia.edu/about/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 1855a5aa505589a0… - build (the resource's own statement):
Built with Minicomp/Wax
https://literaryai.library.columbia.edu/about/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 1855a5aa505589a0…
Unchecked
the eight exhibit cases and the credits page (linked and unsaved): item-level records, how generated texts are attributed, and the exhibit's dates; the GitHub repository (linked and unsaved); whether a physical exhibition ran at the Rare Book & Manuscript Library, and when
Cite: Lee Sharks, ed. "The Literary History of Artificial Intelligence." The training layer: a meta-aggregator, traininglayerliterature.org, compiled 2026-11-01. https://www.traininglayerliterature.org/aggregators/literary-ai