Indexing of basic archive holdings

The project involves cataloguing and digitising two key archive collections covering the years 1933 to 1960. In addition, the collection database will be expanded to include an integrable archive module.

Improved access to the in-house archive is crucial for provenance research. The project is funded by the ‘Framework Expenditure Authorisation for Active Provenance Research in the Cantonal Museums of Basel-Stadt for the years 2023 to 2026/2029’ from the Canton of Basel-Stadt.

The selected archival records constitute the most important holdings for provenance research in the HMB archive. Whilst the ‘Minutes of the Commission’ discuss new acquisitions to the collection, the ‘Offers and Acquisitions (Purchases, Gifts, Bequests)’ contain a wide variety of information on the collection objects. The period under investigation was chosen in view of the context of injustice surrounding the confiscation resulting from Nazi persecution. A finding aid will be created for the holdings to be catalogued and digitised, making them easier to search. Their cataloguing and processing using a new archive module, which brings together objects and archival records in the same collection database, will in future enable archive metadata to be exported to other databases. In this way, the project generates significant added value for both internal and external provenance researchers:

• Duration: April 2025 – April 2026
• Participants: Andrea Arnold, Karl Clemens Kübler, Patrick Moser
• Objective: Cataloguing and digitisation of fundamental document collections
• Funding: Canton of Basel-Stadt, framework expenditure authorisation for active provenance research in the cantonal museums of Basel-Stadt for the years 2023 to 2026/2029