/ Martin Lüpold
When ink corrosion leads to digitization
About 1000 files with commercial letters from the Basel textile industry of the early 19th century are now online. This is only the beginning. A project against ink corrosion will lead to the digitization of all of the 250'000 letters.
Thereareover250'000lettersin40'000files. TheseareletterssenttoBaselbycompaniesfromallovertheworld. MorespecificallytothetextilecompaniesintheWürttembergerhof (Forcart-WeissandBurckhard-Wildt), tothecompanyintheSegerhof (ChristophBurckhardt & Co. )andtoJ.S.Alioth & Co. ThesebusinessletterstestifytoBasel'scommercialtieswithEuropeandtheworld.
Thestationeryisinmanycasesverythinandfragile, theirongallinkusedisoftenchemicallysuboptimal, i.e.acidic. Theresult: theink corrodesthepaper. Thephenomenoniscalledink corrosion. Thebusiness lettersoftheSWAarepartoftheholdingsthatarebeingprocessedaspartoftheink corrosion project of the University Library Basel. Processingmeans: goodpackagingandstorage; treatmentofdamage; and: digitizationtoprotectthevaluableoriginals.
Digitizationisthemostvisiblesignoftheproject'sprogress. Currently, theletters from the company archives Forcart-Weis & Söhne (Württembergerhof, SWA HS 258) arebeingdigitizedandcontinuouslyreleasedonthee-manuscriptaplatform. Beforedigitization, thelettersareinspectedbytherestorersandtreatedifnecessary.
Hereyoucanfindouthowtocompileacollectionforyourresearchproject.