Digitisation of Jeremy Bentham’s papers now complete

The central collection of the papers of Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832), the English philosopher and intellectual inspiration behind UCL, have now been completely digitised. Some 95,000 images from collections at UCL and The British Library have been captured in digital form, making them accessible to interested readers around the globe. This fantastic achievement was overseen by the Bentham Project (UCL Laws), in collaboration with UCL Special Collections, UCL ISD Digital Media Services, UCL Centre for Digital Humanities and The British Library. Bentham is perhaps best known for formulating the ethical theory of utilitarianism: the idea that society should be organised to promote the greatest happiness of the greatest number of people. He also cemented his own legacy by requesting that his body be preserved and displayed after his death. Bentham's Auto-Icon is currently exhibited at the Met Breuer museum in New York, although it usually resides in the South Cloisters of UCL. Bentham was a committed and radical reformer and his papers contain detailed proposals for constitutional, democratic, religious, educational and penal change.