Digitalization of the main estate of the physiologist and physicist Hermann von Helmholtz (1821-1894) and retroconversion of the available finding aids

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Christoph Markschies, since 9/2021
• Subject Area: History of Science
• Term: from 2020 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 442874836

The archive of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (BBAW) dates back to the 17th century and contains about 6,500 linear metres of archival material. The holdings include the main estate of the outstanding scientist and scientific organizer of the 19th century, Hermann von Helmholtz, with a volume of 5 linear metres. Further partial estates of Helmholtz in the Deutsche Museum in Munich and in the Siemens Archive in Berlin are no more extensive than 0.3 linear metres. The personal papers in the Academy Archive contain Helmholtz manuscripts and working materials on physiology, pathology, optics, acoustics, electrodynamics, thermodynamics, physics of the earth and epistemology as well as his scientific correspondence with approx. 1,700 letters. On the occasion of the 200th anniversary of Helmholtz in 2021, the use of the personal papers, which has been ongoing for decades, is expected to increase and with it the desire for digital access to sources.The cataloguing of the personal papers began in 1956 with the description of the correspondence files. In the chronologically ordered correspondence index, each letter was described individually with the name of the sender as well as the place, date and volume. In 1986 the letters were sorted alphabetically according to correspondence partners and summarized with their number and time extension. Furthermore the initially roughly listed manuscripts and working materials were more intensively indexed. The final step was a typewritten finding aid, which was converted into the Augias database in 2007. However, it has not yet been possible to make this finding aid available online, so that only general information on the holdings is available on the BBAW archive website and in the Central Database of Personal Papers of the Bundesarchiv. Within the framework of this DFG project, the non- microfilmed personal papers are to be digitized by a project staff member on site in 12 months part-time (20 hours per week) in accordance with the rules of practice. The aim of the retroconversion is to merge the correspondence index and the finding aid in the Augias database, to check all the details of the description and, if necessary, to correct and supplement them. For the retroconversion and the integration of the approx. 28,000 scans into the indexing files, we apply for a further project staff position for an archivist in the upper grade of the civil service with a duration of 13 months part-time (20 hours per week).The aim of the project is to publish the personal papers on the Internet via the Archive Portal-D, which is the aggregator for the German Digital Library, a separate website, and the DFG Viewer. By integrating the metadata into the DFG project correspSearch, correspondence will be placed in a larger letter context and further visualisation possibilities for the correspondence will be developed beyond the project objectives.

• DFG Programme: Cataloguing and Digitisation (Scientific Library Services and Information Systems)
• Co-Investigators: Markus Schnöpf; Wiebke Witzel
• Ehemaliger Antragsteller: Professor Dr. Martin Grötschel, until 9/2021