The Collection Albrecht Haupt – open and connected

The Albrecht Haupt Collection is an architectural and art-historical gem within the holdings of the German National Library of Science and Technology. The TIB’s focus on technical and scientific disciplines would not lead one to expect such a treasure here. Even long-time employees are amazed at the impressive drawings and prints from the 16th to 19th centuries that lie dormant in the stacks of their own institution and of whose existence they were unaware for a long time.

Digitised: historical treasures online since 2023

Since more than 15,000 digitised copies of over 6,000 individual sheets were made digitally accessible via the TIB SAH digital website around a year ago and are now easy to browse, anyone can take a look at the historical treasures for themselves. In order to significantly increase awareness of our collection and make the objects easier to find, even without prior knowledge, a good network is required. A first step in this direction was implemented in March 2024: since mid-March, our objects have been fed into the cross-collection Graphikportal.

Collections from more than 30 museums, libraries and archives in the Graphikportal

The Graphikportal is operated by the German Documentation Centre for Art History – Image Archive Photo Marburg at the Philipps University of Marburg (DDK). The idea of a cross-collection portal in the sense of a union catalogue for graphic art was developed in the Working Group Graphik vernetzt, which was founded in 2011 with a view to exchanging information on digitisation issues.

The number of contributing collections is growing steadily and the holdings of over 30 large and small museums, libraries and archives have now been brought together and can be searched together. The contextualisation of our own holdings in a series with the holdings of major institutions such as the Albertina in Vienna or the Hamburger Kunsthalle naturally increases attention, but also highlights the art-historical relevance of the Albrecht Haupt Collection.

Data exchange with the DDK

Mapping to the LIDO data exchange format was necessary in order to be able to deliver our own data to the Graphikportal. In constant exchange with the DDK staff in Marburg, the mapping to the LIDO schema 1.0 was implemented via XSLT and the data export was realised via a public interface set up for this purpose. Only those objects that have already undergone specialised indexing are exported. The minimum requirements for this are title, type of object and metadata on the creation of the object, such as artist, place of creation, date, technique and material. The objects that fulfil this requirement can be read out via the interface.

Collection of prints and drawings

When Albrecht Haupt (1852-1932) bequeathed his collection of prints to the library of the then Königliche Technische Hochschule during his lifetime in 1901, he did so on the condition that it be made permanently available. This task was and is not easy to accomplish in view of the precarious nature of the material, as the works have to be kept in a special climate-controlled environment and protected from light. With today’s technical possibilities, the collector’s requirement can now be more than fulfilled: the works are not only made available around the clock, but also gain increased publicity through networking, which in the best case will also result in further research.

Birte Rubach