Can we grasp and preserve the fleetingness of 19th-century fairs through digital humanities?

In this paper I will discuss the digital component of the ERC-funded project “Science at the fair. Performing Knowledge and Technology in Western Europe, 1850-1914” (SciFair).1 I want to provide insight into why and how we set up our database, which problems we encountered, what we hope to achieve, and which preliminary results we generated.