Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities
Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities
The Prize Papers have survived in a unique material condition. Great parts
of the collection have been preserved in a historical state of conservation actually
dating back to the exact time when the records fell victim to privateering and
became part of ensuing court proceedings. Letters that have never been opened,
artefacts from life onboard ships, sailors' notebooks containing fragile chalk
writing or court bundles that were once stitched together by court clerks.
Thus, it is no exaggeration to say that opening up the archive boxes is often like
cracking open time capsules.
In the Prize Papers Project, preserving, documenting, and presenting the
unique materiality of the HCA collection online is one of our main aims and it
is also our responsibility as a digitization project. On this homepage, we
present our approach regarding the collection's materiality as a joint effort
of archivists, conservators, imaging operators, historians, and IT-specialists,
and provide insight into research opportunities, our daily work, and the challenges
we face. This homepage aims to present and document our materiality approachl.
Take a look at some of the most intriguing pieces of the collection in terms of their material condition and preservation status. As if they were frozen in time, some of the archive boxes present us with time capsules containing letters never opened or still folded in the way their authors left them, books never finished, original court bundles or artefacts once stolen right out of the hands of the historical actors. In the exhibition, the viewer also can glean a first impression of how we digitize the materials of the Prize Papers collection.
Alongside thousands of documents, various other types of artefacts have survived in the Prize Papers collection; artefacts one might not expect in a collection of legal records. These artefacts were once part of the mail in transit stored on board the captured ships, they were insertions in letters, were confiscated as part of the cargo of the captured ships, or they once belonged to captains, sailors, or passengers on the ships. We digitize these artefacts individually and as part of their original material arrangements.
Learn more about historical practices that have left their mark on the collection. Due to the intriguing state of preservation of the Prize Papers collection, many past handling techniques of paper or other artefacts have left a trace or perpetuated themselves in the material so that researchers today can draw conclusions on the material competence of historical actors, literacy skills, postal conditions, administrative and court practices, letter practices or archive practices, then and now
Read more about the project's emphasis on preserving and documenting the materiality of the collection as a physical archive and its translation into a digital collection. Learn about our imaging formats and set-ups, cooperative working procedures, and about our metadata on materiality. Our materiality approach is a joint effort of all different departments involved in the project. Our aim is to digitize the unique collection of the Prize Papers while simultaneously preserving its material authenticity.
Working together and learning from experts from various fields of research and from different departments in the National Archives is a corner stone of the Prize Papers materiality approach. In the project, we work together closely and cooperate with in-house experts as well as with international partners, sharing expertise and research findings in order to confront the material challenges appropriately posed by the collection and by its virtual representation. Learn more about our workshops and documentaries in the past and future
The good thing about working on and with materiality is - almost anybody can take part in it. If you are an expert in a related field or project and would like to work with us, if you would like to comment or share expertise on certain materiality features or materiality depictions shown on this page, or if you simply have some questions, please feel free to contact us!