Helene Baumann
Duke University
Abstract
The paper aims to introduce the Bildarchiv der Deutschen Kolonialgesellschaft ( http://www.stub.bildarchiv-dkg.uni-frankfurt.de ) featuring some 55,000 digitized pictures, many from Africa and potentially of interest to historians, ethnologists, and others looking for primary source material. The pictures are freely accessible and searchable on the internet. The photographs document the short-lived German colonial enterprise, lasting from the 1880s to World War I, spanning geographically from Togo, Cameroon, German Southwest Africa (today's Namibia), German East-Africa (Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi), to parts of China, Micronesia and Papua New Guinea. Main themes concern the activities of Africans and European settlers, transport of all kinds, economic development, rebellions and wars, exploratory travel, geology, mining, vegetation and agriculture, zoology and animal husbandry, as well as pictures of colonial exhibits held in Germany. The society continued to collect photographs up to the beginning of World War II, as they were agitating to recover the colonies Germany lost in 1918.
Another digital archive discussed is that of the Basel Mission at www.bmpix.org . These pictures date from the 1850s to the 1950s. To quote their website: “Judging by their photographs, many of these men and women [i.e. missionaries] were fascinated by the unknown world around them which they were gradually learning to understand, and had great respect for the people with whom they lived and worked.”
Use of such free online archives, where preservation and digitization of rare and fragile photographs are paid by public and private funds, may encourage further such projects, ensuring both preservation and access to unique research materials.