/ Martin Lüpold
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.