KarAfAs – Cartographies of Africa and Asia

The Perthes Collection comprises the holdings of the publishing houses Justus Perthes Gotha, Justus Perthes Darmstadt and the VEB Hermann Haack Gotha. It is one of the most significant archives of a map publishing house on the European continent. A remarkable part of the holdings is the map collection, which consists of around 200 000 sheets of cartographic material. Since it contains maps in all stages of their development that were produced in Gotha, from draft maps to the finalized printed product, as well as maps the publishers purchased internationally since the beginning of the 19^th century, the map collection presents a mesmerizing opportunity for researchers of historical cartography. Thanks to the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research’s (BMBF) financial support, a significant part of the map collection will now be made available online: Within two years, more than 35 000 of the collection’s maps of Africa and Asia from 1800 to 1945 will be catalogued, digitized and made available to the scientific community. All digitized items will be published at the Digital Historical Library Erfurt/Gotha (DHB), hosted by the Thuringian University and State Library (ThULB) Jena. A selection of the project’s first finds and findings are presented at our blog Mapping Africa and Asia. Moreover, the diverging research fields to which the collection contributes, as well as the overall research potential of the collection will be further presented and discussed during events, conferences and workshops.  

More team members:

Implementation/Digitization:
Karl Franz Hutter, M.A., Yvonne Gräser, Martina Schröder, Andreas Pügner

Student Assistants:
Marko Mališ, Julia Toni

Restauration:
Gotha Research Library