06 January 2014
New online collections - January 2014
Happy new year from the Endangered Archives Programme! To celebrate the start of 2014 we have four new online collections available with over one hundred thousand images. Two of these collections come from India with the other two collections originating in China and Indonesia.
The first collection is EAP143, this project preserved Shui manuscripts in China. These are considered to be one of the few remaining types of documents in China that are written in a hieroglyphic style.
The manuscripts give a rare insight into Shui culture as well as being useful for studying history, anthropology, folklore and even palaeography in general. Shui manuscripts are written, kept and taught by the native priesthood. The manuscripts are used in rituals, as well as in teaching the next generation of priests. The contents of the manuscripts cover a variety of topics including Shui knowledge on astronomy, geography, folklore, religion, ethics, philosophy, art and history.
The project surveyed about twenty villages in Libo County and a selection of approximately 600 Shui manuscripts was chosen and then digitised; these are now available to view online.
EAP143/2/118 – Image 9
EAP208 set out to digitise palm leaf manuscripts from northern Kerala, India. These documents, which are in a fragile and endangered condition, contain several insights into areas of knowledge such as ecology, agriculture, science, art (the arts) and spirituality.
The project was successful in digitising 275 manuscripts with over 50,000 images.
EAP208/15/37 – Image 21
EAP281 located and identified Lepcha manuscripts in Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Sikkim in India. The Lepcha people are local to Sikkim but represent a minority of the population in Sikkim and neighbouring areas. The culture and language has been diminishing for over a century as many young Lepcha give preference to learning English or Nepalese and are less interested in their traditions.
The Lepcha people have their own indigenous script which dates back to the 18th century. The manuscripts reveal the earliest stages of Lepcha literary heritage. The oldest handwritten materials that have so far been identified were written in the second half of the 19th century. Many of the manuscripts contain texts of a Buddhist nature, a smaller number of texts reflect older Lepcha traditions. The project successfully digitised 40 manuscripts and located many more.
EAP281/1/5 Image 9
EAP329 digitised private collections of Acehnese manuscripts located in Pidie and Aceh Besar regencies. These had been surveyed by a previous pilot project EAP229. The content of the manuscripts is a part of Acehnese history with regards to lifestyle, the kingdom of Aceh, and the war against colonialism. They also relate to Islamic knowledge and Islamic mysticism (Sufism) and its order. The project successfully digitised 483 manuscripts with over 46,000 images.
EAP329/1/17 Image 1
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.
07 May 2013
New online collections – May 2013
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 20th 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.
20 March 2013
Preserving the endangered manuscripts of the Cham people in Vietnam
This month EAP531 sent their interim report with accompanying photographs to the EAP Office. It is a pilot project conducting a survey of Cham manuscripts held at various locations in Vietnam. The images are truly fascinating and here is a selection.
11 February 2013
Mongolian New Year
Today is the start of Mongolian New Year, known as Tsagaan Sar – it is celebrated on the first day of the lunar year according to the Mongolian calendar.
So, it seems appropriate to do a quick EAP Blog on a Mongolian project. One of my first tasks when I became EAP Curator was to check the sample images sent in from EAP529 which is currently digitising 19th and early 20th century Buddhist manuscripts from Dambadarjaa Monastery. The history of this monastery is a fascinating one, and I recommend you have a read of the project page. This photograph is of the library which was turned into a pharmacy when the monastery was converted into a hospital and then an old people’s care home during the political repression of the 20th century.
This is an image from a page of one of the manuscripts being digitised.
We have four EAP projects from Mongolia and I would like to wish everyone who has worked on them a very Happy New Year.
25 September 2012
Pa'O religious and literary manuscripts now online
We are pleased to announce that materials created as part of the EAP104 project are now available to view via the EAP Webpages. EAP104 digitised 71 religious and literary manuscripts housed in the Pa'O Literary and Cultural Council Committee (PLCCC) Library in Taunggyi, Myanmar (Burma).
EAP104 A pilot project aimed at the preservation of Pa'O religious and literary manuscripts
EAP104/1/1 Lokadippa lokavvat' phrekyam [1986 (1343 Burmese Era)], elucidation of the Vinaya
The collection consists of parabaik (folded paper manuscripts), bound scrolls and palm leaf texts, written in the Pa'O, Burmese and Shan languages. The EAP104 project focussed on the Pa'O interpretations of the Theravada Buddhist canon, alongside texts detailing Pa'O dynasties and historical sites.
EAP104/1/20 Charākrui' tasī'' kyam, treatise on meditation
07 September 2012
August Accessions
During August we received the final Survey Report from EAP469 Last traces of a destroyed community: surveying the Hungarian Jewish congretational archives and digital copies of periodicals from EAP191 Strategies for archiving the endangered publications of French India (1800-1923).
EAP469 was a pilot project that set out to visit and survey the records of Hungarian Jewish congregations. The project team visited 20 congregations and found many valuable and fragile records. These included birth, death and marriage registers; minutes of meetings of various community bodies; financial, cash and tax registers; lists of community members; Holocaust -related material; and registered documents of the community's administration. The Survey Report will be made available on the EAP webpages.
EAP191 was a major project aimed at digitally preserving the serials published in French India that are held by the libray of the French Institute of Pondicherry. The project has successfully copied five rare series and some miscellaneous volumes of four periodicals published in Pondicherry, under the French colonial administration, between 1823 and 1954.
Among the five main periodicals copied, two are the gazette of the French colonial government. These publications contain administrative and judicial records, including important laws, government ordinances, administrative appointments, circulars and announcements. They serve as an archive of colonial memory, providing a record of different colonial practices. A third publication is the subject index of the gazette. A fourth series relates to historical studies while a fifth is a popular magazine for the young. Among the miscellaneous volumes are: a monthly containing pedagogical material, a religious monthly, the government's official yearbook and proceedings of meetings of the General Council of French India.
22 February 2012
Highlighting Church Records from Tanzania
Today's post was written by Professor Doctor Adam Jones, the project holder for EAP099 Collecting and preserving the records of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania in Moshi, Tanzania. This project successfully copied correspondence, mission station diaries, church registers, parish council minutes, files on education, cash books and photographs.
A grant from the Endangered Archives Programme in 2006-2007 enabled two of my students to bring together and digitise 20,000 pages of the records held by the Northern Diocese of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania in its offices in Moshi. The records derived from the work of the Leipzig Mission between the 1890s and 1930s.
This project went so well that although the grant had run out, I persuaded two more students to go to Moshi at their own expense in 2007, another two in 2008 and two more in 2010. We have now digitised a total of 31,000 pages covering everything up to the early 1940s. Next week two more students will fly to Moshi and continue the work of their predecessors.
Most of the material is in German; some is in Swahili or - for the years when German missionaries were expelled and Americans took over - in English. As an example of what may be found, let us take the minutes of parish elders' meetings in the village of Mamba from 1919 to 1926. In 62 handwritten pages we find no less than:
6 meetings discussing issues relating to female circumcision
4 on paying bridewealth
2 on virginity tests
2 on rape
3 on 'immoral' behaviour
2 on widowhood (and the custom of re-marrying into the lineage of the deceased)
2 on mental illness
2 on sacrifice
2 on dancing
8 on sorcery
3 on competition between several men for one bride
10 on adultery.
Thus church records provide information on more than what one might expect. They are an invaluable source for social history at a grassroots level.
Adam Jones, University of Leipzig
21 April 2011
The Easter Story
Many EAP projects are copying material from religious collections or records that cover religious or spiritual themes and stories. Some of these have been highlighted in previous posts, as we accession material or as projects finish. Because tomorrow is Easter Friday, I thought I would look at some of these projects and the wonderful Christian manuscripts and materials they're copying. There are more than a few to choose from. With difficulty, I have limited myself to three.
One of our very early projects, EAP040 copied records held in the Honterus parish building of Brazov, in Central Romania. This material dates back to the 14th century. The project copied ecclesiastical records and records that touch on life in the parish encompassing topics such as education and marriage, local traditions and music. The original records are now kept in the Lutheran parish house. Details are available on their webpages: http://www.honterus-archiv.ro/
Another of our earlier projects, EAP099 targeted records relating to the first missionaries sent by the Leipzig Mission from Germany to the Kilimanjaro region, between the late 1890s and 1930. The project team copied correspondence, mission station diaries, church registers (baptisms, marriages and funerals), parish council minutes, files on education and cash books, and some photographs. The work of this project has carried on and valuable material continues to be identified and preserved.
EAP336: Preserving the lay bet andemta: the Ethiopian intellectual legacy on the verge of extinction
A more recent project, EAP336 is copying manuscripts containing biblical and patristic commentaries. Below are some illustrations from a late 16th or early 17th century Gospel text, showing scenes from the Easter story.
Lynda
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