SEMINAR SERIES AT THE BRITISH MUSEUM ‘S CENTRE FOR ANTHROPOLOGY

When: Thursday, 4 March 2010 at 10.30 am
Where: Centre for Anthropology, British Museum

Following the recent digitasation of the pictorial collection of ethnographic images at the Department of Africa Oceania and the Americas at the British Museum, the BM’s Centre for Anthropology and the Royal Anthropological Institute are pleased to invite for a seminar and talk by Barbara Frey-Näf on the history and process of digitasation of the significant archives of Mission 21, Basel, Switzerland.

Historical Photographs, Maps and Manuscripts of the Archives of mission 21 / Basel Mission - Longterm Perspectives of Web Access

The archives of mission 21 / Basel Mission contavin historical photographs, written records, printed and hand-drawn maps, and building plans. This collection is a very important resource for research in many academic fields such as history and church history, social and cultural anthropology, geography, and environmental sciences. The cross-linking of available information is one of the goals in the process of improving accessibility to these materials. The collection contains images from the early years of photography to the middle of the 20th century, including 28,400 images that are digitally accessible. The photographic collection has been on the web since 2002 and was relaunched at the University of Southern California in 2008 (see www.bmpix.org).

Barbara Frey-Näf is an anthropologist and historic photo curator working with the collections of the Basel Mission since 1990.

Bookings/enquiries: Jan Ayres JAyres@thebritishmuseum.ac.uk