Institute Archives and Databases
Many collections maintain their own archives, which contain further information on the objects, their provenance, and the histories and genesis of the collections. In addition, some institutes maintain their own databases in which the objects in the collections are listed and further valuable information is provided. Some of the archives and databases are listed here; further information can be found under the section “Museums & Collections” and on the pages of the respective institutes.
Heidelberg University Library
Heidelberg Accession Index (HAI): accession books and inventory catalogues of European collections and museums
With the HAI, which is still under construction, Heidelberg University Library aims to present online the broadest possible record of digitally available accession books and inventory catalogues of European collections and museums. The starting point is formed by the approximately 1,000 acquisition books of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (SMB) from the years 1650 to 2010. These Berlin acquisition books (currently around 700 volumes are available online here) are being supplemented by inventory books from more than 15 additional partners, for example the German Historical Museum Berlin, the LVR-Landes Museum Bonn, the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, the Städtisches Museum Göttingen, the Kölnisches Stadtmuseum, the ZI München, the library of the Germanisches Nationalmuseum, the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, the Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe, or Heidelberg University. Further holdings are in preparation. At present, a total of approximately 1,180 inventory volumes can be viewed online.
Botanical Garden
Scholarly estate of Werner Rauh
Werner Rauh—Director of the Botanical Garden from 1960 to 1982—undertook around 40 extended botanical research journeys between 1938 and 1994, mainly to Central and South America as well as southern Africa and, in particular, Madagascar. From his expeditions he brought back not only countless plants for the Botanical Garden and the Herbarium HEID, but also about 200 notebooks with detailed information on these collections of specimens (more than 18,000 handwritten pages), as well as thousands of photographs.
Part of this estate remained in Heidelberg after Rauh died in 2000, for example, his travel diaries. The greater part, however, passed—according to the wishes of the testator—to his student Prof. Wilhelm Barthlott (Bonn), who had accompanied many of Rauh’s expeditions. The largest part of this Bonn material was transferred to Heidelberg University in 2016. This estate (approx. 45 shelf metres) is now curated and housed in a specially prepared archive room in the west pavilion of the Botanical Garden and has been accessible for research purposes since the end of December 2018. Thus, not only the plant holdings but also this historically significant material by Werner Rauh is now available.
The project summary from mid-2016 to the end of 2018 (archiving, cataloguing, and retrievability) has been compiled in a report with a finding aid and is available as a PDF download.
Rauh’s field and travel diaries, as well as the information derived from them on his field numbers, can be found in the Rauh database (WRHP).
Numismatic Collection
Institute archive
The Numismatic Collection holds several shelf metres of collection-related documentation, some of it in digitized form. This documentation provides access to valuable information about the coins and their collection context.
Databases
The numismatic holdings of Heidelberg University are recorded in various databases. This makes the coins of the Numismatic Collection digitally available for research.
Equipment pool
A coin photography device by the company Danner is available in the Numismatic Collection. Use is possible by arrangement and following instructions.
Contact: Dr. Susanne Börner susanne.boerner@zaw.uni-heidelberg.de
Museum für Geowissenschaften
Institute archive
The archive of the Institute of Earth Sciences contains valuable holdings on the history of the collection holdings. The documents extend from the end of the 18th century into the second half of the 20th century. The archival holdings have not yet been systematically catalogued.
Contact: Dr. Martina Schmalholz
martina.schmalholz@geow.uni-heidelberg.de