Cataloguing and Online-Publication of Architectural Drawings from the Hessian State Archives in Marburg

• Applicants: Dr. Christian Bracht; Professor Dr. Andreas Hedwig
• Subject Area: Art History
• Term: from 2016 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 277939344

The Map Department of the Hessian State Archives in Marburg (HStAM) (a total of approx. 230,000 maps) dates back to the sixteenth century and includes not only cadastral and field maps which are predominant, but also a significant inventory of architectural drawings (approx. 9,000 objects) of which none have been digitized and which are not catalogued according to a consistent system so far. The majority of the drawings depict major building projects in cities which were formerly residences of the Hessian sovereigns, but also architectural constructions in all regions of the former Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel. The drawings document various kinds of structures, the development of their designs through time, as well as manual and technical aspects of the construction process.Through a collaboration between the HStAM and the Deutsches Dokumentationszentrum für Kunstgeschichte ¿ Bildarchiv Foto Marburg (DDK ¿ the Marburg photographic image archives of the German documentation center for art history) architectural drawings from the early modern period to the beginning of the twentieth century will be digitized, catalogued and published online in the Bildindex der Kunst und Architektur (image index of art and architecture). Furthermore, they will be linked to digital inventories and images from many other partner organizations (architectural photographs, architectural depictions in paintings and graphic art). At the same time, the digital copies will be published in the web-based archival informationsystem Arcinsys of the HStAM in the context of corresponding archival records. There are also plans to supply the metadata and images to the Archivportal-D (German Archival Portal), as well as to the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek (German Digital Library) and the Europeana. Posting on the internet will enable free access to the inventories and digitals, which have hitherto been difficult to use in research.In a second step, approx. 2,000 architectural drawings chosen for their significance to the history of art and architecture will be catalogued in greater depth, recording additional information on the context of the drawings beyond the building history in order to enable insights into important questions related to the history of art and architecture.As of now, there is no digital catalogue of the complete fond of architectural drawings in a German state archives available in this form. Yet the inventories of drawings and plans in public archives are of particular relevance because they document the activities of the state. The functional connection between prestigious representation and statehood is especially obvious in the architectural drawings of public projects. Moreover, the procedural paths they follow through institutions involved in building administration up to the point that they are officially stored in a governmental archives can be traced.

• DFG Programme: Cataloguing and Digitisation (Scientific Library Services and Information Systems)
• Co-Investigator: Professor Dr. Hubert Locher