The Photo Museum Province of Antwerp (FotoMuseum Provincie Antwerpen - FoMu) has recently given the kick off for a photographic heritage project “DAGUERREOBASE “ that is supported by the European Commission. The project’s ambitious goal is to collect over 25.000 images from all over Europe and their descriptions of European-style historical daguerreotypes and related literature in one common aggregator database/knowledge bank: DAGUERREOBASE.
Download the project leaflet DAG_Leaflet_FINAL.pdf
The Daguerreobase project will make an important contribution to Europeana, since a selection of the content of the Daguerreobase, will be visible in Europeana.eu, the portal and digital library for European Cultural Heritage of the European Union. This project is partially funded under the ICT Policy Support Programme (ICT PSP) as part of the competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme by the European Community.
The daguerreotype was the first commercially successful photographic process (1839-1860). It is a direct positive made in the camera on a silvered copper plate. European-style daguerreotypes are scarce and collections are scattered around in several European institutional and private collections . Daguerreobase is an existing database, originated by the Dutch Photo Museum (Stichting Nederlands Fotomuseum), that will be renewed.
The renewed daguerreobase aims not only to aggregate and to centralize the information about these collections, it will also make this information open to researchers and professionals but also to the general public as an educational platform. Private owners and public institutions will be invited to share their treasures in a secured digital environment.
To achieve this ambitious goal a consortium of 18 European partners from 13 different countries has been established. These partners are photography collecting institutes and private conservators specialised in photography. Partners will agree on the development of a standard of description and provide data for the Daguerreobase. This will result in a user friendly website with a unique amount information regarding the European-style daguerreotypes and related object and literature. In the final months a Europeana Virtual Daguerreotype Exhibition will be programmed.
The FoMu is project coordinator and the other consortium partners are: Stichting Nederlands Fotomuseum (NL), Museum Conservation Services (UK), Ville de Paris (FR), Stadt Köln (DE), Landshauptstadt Dresden (DE), Ministère de la Culture (LU), Insititut for Papierrestaurierung Schloss Schonbrunn Mag. Markus Klaszund Mitgesellschafter – IPR (AT), Suomen Valokuvataiteen Museon Saatio Stiftelsen – Stiftelesen for Finlands Fotografiska Museum Foundation Finnish Museum of Photography SVM FMP (FI), Nasjionalbiblioteket (NO), Universitetet i Bergen (NO), Picturae bv (NL), e-David (BE), Ortelee Marinus Jan*MJ Ortelee/Fotojournalist MOCED (NL), SMP Di Petrillo Sandra Maria (IT), Narodni Technicke Muzeum (CZ), Universitat Politecnica de Valencia, (ES), Det Kongelige Bibliotek, Nationalbibliotek og Kobenhavns Universitetsbibliotek (DK).
The project will run from November 1st, 2012 till the end of April 2015.
For further information, or pictures please contact: Isabelle Willems FotoMuseum Provincie Antwerpen Isabelle.Willems@fomu.be +32-(0)3-242 93 23
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