This is the first of a new series of monthly blog posts which will highlight the collections that have become available to view online on the EAP website over the past month. 

 Four collections went up last month, the first of which was EAP375, this project digitised over 25,000 images of archives from the Haynes Publishing Company of Argentina.

EAP375/1/1/1 – Image 25

The Haynes publishing company was created by Albert M. Haynes, a British citizen who went to Argentina to work for the Buenos Aires Western Railway. After his retirement he founded the Haynes Publishing Company in 1904, it remained active until its closure in 1968. The company produced several publications including the magazine El Hogar and the daily newspaper El Mundo. The company was active during some important periods of Argentine history. In particular it covers the period of the presidencies of José Félix Uriburu, Agustín Pedro Justo, Roberto María Ortiz and Ramón Castillo during the Infamous Decade (1930-1943) as well as the first presidency of Juan Perón (1946-1955)

EAP375/1/1/59 – Image 82

Another collection now available is EAP368, this contains some fascinating images depicting the indigenous peoples of Western Siberia.

EAP368/1/1/1 – Image 9

The project identified glass plate negatives and photographic material depicting Western Siberian life during the early 20^th century. These were then catalogued and digitised. The images present a fascinating window into this society before it was affected by modernisation.

EAP368/1/1/1 Image 155

EAP368/1/1/1 – Image 319

The final two collections are EAP340 and EAP365. EAP340 digitised a selection of manuscript collections in the monastic church of Ewostatewos at Däbrä Särabi in Tigray, Ethopia.

EAP340/1/2 – Image 4

EAP365 was a pilot project which aimed to discover collections of lontara’ manuscripts in the Makassarese language of South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Lontara’ manuscripts consist largely of chronicles or histories of local kingdoms, collections of rules relating to customary law, or court diaries/daybooks. The project was successful in collecting representative images from several lontara' in Makassar, and in a number of villages in Kecamatan Galesong south of the city.

EAP365/1/2 – Image 7

 Check back next month to see what else has been added!

 You can also keep up to date with any new collections by joining our Facebook group.

 

The year is half over and it is time to tell everyone about our June Accessions. We received some really interesting material last month from four different projects working in Chile, Indonesia, Argentina and Mali. Here are the details:

EAP359 Plan for Valparaíso's musical heritage digitisation (1870-1930): scores and 78rpm discs

This project copied printed musical scores and 78rpm discs from the Margot Loyola Collection. The surrogate digital material includes folk music and will provide researchers with a unique insight into the social history of Valparaiso, Chile, during the late 1800s and early 1900s. In addition to their musical content the scores and discs display advertising and some quite fabulous art work.

EAP365 Preservation of Makassarese lontara' pilot project

This pilot project set out to discover and evaluate the existence of private collections of lontara' manuscripts in the Makassarese language of South Sulawesi, Indonesia. The results of their field work will be shown in a Survey Report. Alongside this, the project team took digital images from six manuscripts belonging to three Collections. The image below is from a manuscript concerned with the Islamic calendar.

EAP375 The transition from a traditional to a modern society: recovering Argentinean and Latin American history through an emblematic publishing company

The digital surrogates received from EAP375 are the result of a 12 month project to digitise part of the archives from a major newspaper company in Argentina, the Haynes Publishing Company. I will post more information on this, with images, next week when the principal investigator, Celina Tuzzo, will be our guest blogger.

EAP488 Major project to digitise and preserve the manuscripts of Djenné, Mali

We received the first submission of material from this major project. The project is copying manuscripts belonging to private collections housed in the Manuscript Library of Djenné or private family libraries. These Arabic manuscripts include important Islamic texts and other volumes covering a range of topics including themes of the occult and local history.

Lynda

As promised, here are the details of the other four projects which submitted material to the EAP in March:

EAP298 Preserving endangered ethnographic audiovisual materials of expressive culture in Peru

This project builds on the work and achievements of the EAP022 project conducted by the Institute of Ethnomusicology at the Catholic University of Peru. That project digitised audiovisual material  documenting Peruvian ritual dance, music and drama from the provinces of Cajamarca, Ancash and Junin; this follow up project will digitise material from the provinces of Ayacucho, Arequipa and Puno, located to the south of Lima, and culturally and linguistically distinct from the Northern provinces.

 

EAP357 Identifying endangered monastic collections in the Saharti and Enderta regions of Tigray, Ethiopia

Project EAP357 is undertaking a survey of monastic libraries in the Saharti and Enderta regions of Tigray, Northern Ethiopia. More information can be found in our January Accessions blog.

EAP365 Preservation of Makassarese Lontara' pilot project

This pilot project aims to discover and evaluate collections of Lontara' manuscripts in the Makassarese language of South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Written in two syllabaries, with the oldest extant manuscripts dating back to the 17th century, Lontara' manuscripts consist largely of chronicles or histories of local kingdoms, collections of rules relating to customary law, and court diaries and daybooks. The project will digitise a selection of the materials surveyed, and will investigate the feasibility of conducting a large scale digitisation project.

 

EAP399 Historical collections of manuscripts located at the al-Jazzar mosque library in Acre

The al-Jazzar Mosque library (al-Ahmadiyya) in the city of Acre in northern Israel is home to a large collection of unique Arabic language manuscripts. Dating back to the 14th century, the surviving manuscripts are tightly bound and have been damaged through constant use, the lack of a comprehensive preservation programme, and inhospitable environmental conditions.

The project digitised 54 manuscripts, creating 17,965 image files which will be made accessible to researchers at the al-Jazzar Mosque library and the British Library.

 

Alex

Anyone following this blog will be wondering why there were no "Accessions" posts for August or September. I have been remiss. We have certainly continued to receive material. To rectify the situation, here is a list of the projects that submitted material over the past two months.

Preservation through digitisation of the Tangut collection at the Institute of Oriental Studies, St Petersbury Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences

Preserving endangered ethnographic audiovisual materials of expressive culture in Peru

History of Bolama, the first capital of Portuguese Guines (1879-1941), as reflected in the Guinean National Historical Archives

Digital music archiving: digital archive of North Indian classical music phase II (special collections) and digital archive of recorded Bengali songs

A rescue programme for the Matsieng Royal Archives, Lesotho.

This last project is copying material formerly held at the Royal residence in Matsieng, Lesotho. The images we've received provide visual evidence of how records can be endangered as a result of poor or unsuitable storage. The collection was rescued from the Royal residence by the University Archives in 2007 after the ceiling of their building collapsed, leaving the paper documents exposed to the rain. The images below show the result:

 

 

Among the records being copied are: records on chieftainship and succession to high office; court proceedings and judgements; boundary disputes and resolutions; traditional marriage systems and records; inheritance documentation and disputes; offical speeches; correspondence; publications; official administrative records; records of public works; and financial records of government divisions.

Lynda

Last month we received material from only one project: 'Faces drawn in the sand': a rescue project of Native Peoples' photographs stored at the Museum of La Plata, Argentina - major project.

Led by Dr Irina Podgorny, this project built on the work of an earlier pilot project that successfully identified and re-located 'forgotten collections' within the Museum of La Plata. The major project created microfilm and digital images of 11 Collections. All the material is photographic and include glass plate negatives, celluloid film, glass lantern slides and albumen prints. They are quite amazing. Some of the originals are cracked or damaged because of their age and the project team has done a great job making good quality copies. It was difficult choosing only a few images to show in this post. Here are three:

 

This project is now finished and the full Collections available for access.

Lynda   

Today is the third International Archives Day, and also marks the 62nd anniversary of the International Council on Archives. More information about the day, and the intentions of the ICA in establishing the celebration, can be found here.

Raising awareness of the importance of documentary heritage in shaping and supporting collective memory and upholding citizen's rights around the world is one of the aims of the EAP, and International Archives Day provides us with an excellent opportunity to reflect on our progress so far.

The project Digitisation of Bolivian indigenous communities' records on Allyu structure, tax and land tenure is currently in its final stages, and illustrates our aims and objectives well. The original material is held at the Archivo de La Paz and consists of volumes, maps and loose documentation. The Bolivian indigenous communities require the records as proof of community membership and land ownership and this enormous demand requires repeated handling and copying of the material, which slowly contributes to its degradation.

Creating digital copies has enabled the staff at the Archivo de La Paz to supply access copies on DVD to the 438 cantones of La Paz, increasing community access to this invaluable resource and enabling the Archive to keep the originals in storage, preventing further deterioration through use.

Here are some images taken from the collection:

 

 

Alex
  

Looking over the EAP Accession records it appears most of December was spent processing new material into the library. We received discs, microfilm and hard drives from seven projects! Some of these were continuing transfers from on-going projects. Some were the first receipts from new projects.

Material was received from:

Preserving the archives of the United National Independence Party of Zambia

Collection and digitisation of old music in pre-literate Micronesian society

Study and collection of Hakku Patras and other documents among folk communities in Andhra Pradesh

Saving archival documents of archaeological researches conducted during the 1920s and 1930s in Ukraine

Digital archive of north Indian classical music

Digitisation of Bolivian indigenous communities' records on ayllu structure, tax and land tenure

Preserving more Marathi manuscripts and making them accessible - major project

This last project is the second undertaken by Dr Feldhaus to copy Marathi manuscripts in India. Her first project, Preserving Marathi manuscripts and making them accessible, was completed in 2007. It successfully microfilmed 300 manuscripts including:  works of the Vakari poet-saints from the 13th to the 17th centuries;  works of the 'Pandit' poets of the 17th and 18th centuries;  notebooks of songs used by performers of kirtans and other types of (mostly Vaishnava) religious performances;  manuscripts on yoga, astrology and other kinds of sciences including (interestingly) the science of horses; and manuscripts of the vast literature of the Mahanubhav sect. The project also conducted training for staff in digital preservation and raised awareness of Marathi manuscript collections and their care.

The current major project is continuing to microfilm Marathi manuscripts and training staff. Here is a glimpse of the result:

 

Lynda

It's November 5, Guy Fawkes Day. In Britain, on this day, we commemorate the gun powder plot of 1605 which failed to blow up James I's parliament. The lives of many politicians and other people were saved. I often think, though, that in the act of destroying parliament the explosion would also have destroyed a large number of government papers and archives.

It's worth reflecting that, by thwarting the conspirators, the authorities simultaneously rescued some of Britain's important and irreplaceable political documentary heritage. This made me wonder how many political archives are the subject of EAP surveying or copying activities. As it turns out, quite a few. And they are:

Tuvalu National Archives preservatoin pilot project and Tuvalu National Archives major project

First Yap State Constitutional Convention audio tapes conversion project

Rescuing Liberian history: a pilot study to preserve and enable access to Liberia's Presidential and National Archives and Rescuing Liberian history: preserving the personal papers of William V S Tubman, Liberia's longest serving President and Rescuing Liberian history - preserving the photographs of William VS Tubman, Liberia's longest serving President

Pilot project to seek, identify, contact and report on collections of the endangered archives of the states of Maranhao and Para in the Amazon region of Brazil and Endangered African diaspora collections of the State of Para in the Amazon region of Brazil

Rescuing Eastern Nigerian history: preserving the holdings of Enugu and Calabar regional archives

Digitising the photo documents of Georgia's central state audio-visual archive

Pilot project to identify endangered African diaspora collections at the major archives of the province of Matanzas, Cuba and Digitisation of endangered African diaspora collections at the major archives of the province of Matanzas, Cuba

A survey of the endangered court records of Nevis, West Indies

Preserving the archives of the National Independence Party of Zambia

Inventory of archival holdings in Jamaica

Digitisation of Bolivian indigenous communities' records on ayllu structure, tax and land tenure

Creating a digital archive of Afro-Colombian history and culture: black ecclesiastical, governmental and private records from the Choco, Colombia

Preservation of endangered historical records in the Public Records and Archives Administration (PRAAD) in Tamale, Northern Ghana

History of Bolama, the first capital of Portuguese Guinea (1879-1941), as reflected in the Guinean National Historical Archives

Digitising the endangered archives of Grenada

The titles alone display the variety and reach of these collections. They comprise and document African diaspora and slavery records, the struggle for political independence or separation from colonial powers, land use and taxation of indigenous populations, the early histories of new states, the correspondence of local and national governments, the relationship between church and state and the papers of long serving political leaders and their parties.

Some of these projects have been the subject of past blog entries. One early project focused on photographs held by Georgia's central state audio-visual archive. This was a pilot project and the team aimed to survey the existing photographs. In this they were successful. Although no major copying was done, some sample images were made: