Sherlockian.net is a website dedicated to the Sherlock Holmes community. Through the information provided on this site, we aim to welcome newcomers, be a resource for Sherlockians, share community knowledge, and encourage participation in the Great Game. Have new or updated content to share with us? Fill out our Contact Us form and reach out on Facebook Like what you see here? Please consider donating to support our work.
About Our Team
The Sherlockian team at WIDE includes faculty, academic specialists, and students working as architects, researchers, writers, designers, librarians, and developers. Much of our content, design, ideas, and structure is student-led, making Sherlockian.net a student-powered project at Michigan State University. This project provides a space for our students to practice their skills in experience architecture and professional writing.
Our faculty leader Liza Potts is the Caretaker and Project Advisor of Sherlockian.net. She has been an avid Sherlockian since her father handed her a copy of the Adventures and shared Sunday afternoon viewings of Jeremy Brett and Basil Rathbone appearing as the Great Detective. Today, Dr. Potts is a Professor at Michigan State University where she studies content strategy, social user experience, and digital culture. Dr. Potts is a member of the Adventuresses of Sherlock Holmes, the Beacon Society, the John H. Watson Society, the Diogenes Club of 221B Con, the Tea Brokers of Mincing Lane, and the Greek Interpreters.
Our Team at Michigan State University
Benjamin Lash, WIDE Research Assistant
Paige Brady, WIDE Research Assistant
Liza Potts, Ph.D., ASH, Caretaker and Project Advisor
History
Sherlockian.net was launched in November 22, 1994, and housed at the University of Waterloo, in Ontario, Canada by Chris Redmond. At that time, it was the only Sherlockian website in the world, with fewer than a dozen links to online material about Sherlock Holmes and the Victorian era. In January 2000, it moved the website to its own domain on a commercial server, establishing the site as Sherlockian.Net.
On September 16, 2016, Sherlockian.net was entrusted to Michigan State University’s WIDE Research, a digital humanities lab in the College of Arts and Letters and the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures. Our team took on the challenge of redesigning, organizing, and updating the site. This work included conducting research with community members, architecting the navigation structures, designing page templates, writing new content, developing a social media content strategy, updating thousands of links, and moving over hundreds of pages of content.
Our Board of Advisors
Mattias Boström, BSI
Scott Monty, BSI
Glen Miranker, Ph.D., BSI
Jacquelynn Morris, ASH, BSI
Crystal Noll, Co-Founder of 221B Con
Ashley D. Polasek, Ph.D., FRSA, BSB, ASH
Tamar Zeffren, ASH, BSI, MA
Our Librarian Advisors
Timothy Johnson, E. W. McDiarmid Curator of the Sherlock Holmes Collections, University of Minnesota Libraries
Ranti Junus, MLIS
Our Curators
Taylor Blumenberg, Co-Founder of 221B Con
Cathy Bruhnke, Co-Founder of 221B Con
Elinor Gray, Author
Jacquelynn Morris, ASH, BSI
Crystal Noll, Co-Founder of 221B Con, ASH
Ashley D. Polasek, Ph.D., FRSA, BSI, ASH
Christopher Zordan, ASH, BSI
MSU Team Alumni
Charlotte Bachelor, Project Manager
Julita Fenneuff, Head Content Writer and Editor
Addison Walton, Content Writer and Social Media Manager
Kennedi Cosma, Lead UX Designer
Larissa Babak, Visual Designer
Casey Boland, Social Media Manager
Hannah Countryman, Interaction and Visual Design
Bridget Hanchek, Content Editor
Jessica Gibbons, Lead Content Strategist
Stephanie Mahnke, Content Editor and WIDE Research Assistant
Rebekah Small, Community Manager
Katheryn Sullivan, Information Architect
Kalib Watson, Web Developer and Interface Design
Megan Elias, Content Editor and Writer
Leah Wright, Content Writer and Editor
Colton Almaraz, Front End Developer and UX Designer
Ranti Junus, Systems Librarian
Kristen Mapes, Digital Humanities Coordinator
Jacob Largen, Project Manager and Content Writer
Emily Kayden, Web/Archive Developer
Nicole Rae, Content Strategist and Social Media Lead
Aisha Begum, Content Writer and Editor
Acknowledgments
WIDE Research receives generous funding to host and support Sherlockian.net from Michigan State University’s College of Arts and Letters and the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and Cultures.
Thank you to designer Miroslav Koša for creating the image icons of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson. We purchased Royalty-Free licenses to use them from the Noun Project.
