{"id":5571,"date":"2024-10-24T11:10:25","date_gmt":"2024-10-24T09:10:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/c2dh-en\/?post_type=news&p=5571"},"modified":"2025-03-19T12:59:11","modified_gmt":"2025-03-19T11:59:11","slug":"historesch-gesinn-2-0-a-tool-to-identify-and-collect","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/c2dh-en\/news\/historesch-gesinn-2-0-a-tool-to-identify-and-collect\/","title":{"rendered":"Historesch Gesinn 2.0: a tool to identify and collect"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Historesch Gesinn is a platform that aims to build a bridge between researchers and the general public. It has now been enriched with an \u201cIdentify\u201d feature.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the ever-evolving landscape of knowledge sourcing, Historesch Gesinn<\/a> has introduced a new tool \u2014the \u201cIdentify\u201d feature. The tool was developed to collect information about a selection of photographs of magicians, who performed in Luxembourg in the 1950s and 1960s, and it can be used now for all the collections on the Historesch Gesinn platform. The main advantage is that visitors may identify people, places and objects in the photographs directly and can add information and anecdotes. This new tool enables us to source hidden stories behind the photographs and learn from living memory to enrich the archive material.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Historesch Gesinn is a platform that aims to build a bridge between researchers and the general public. People are invited to learn more about ongoing historical projects at the C\u00b2DH in Luxembourg and to contribute to them. As a platform, it connects the C\u00b2DH with other institutions that engage with the past, such as the Luxembourg City Museum<\/a>. It is also a platform for crowdsourcing of images and photographs in the context of ongoing research, as, for example, the impact of deindustrialization<\/a> in Luxembourg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photography is a powerful medium in contemporary history, as it provides insights into the diverse documentation and archiving practices that individuals employ in their personal lives, for this case, particularly the 1950s and 1960s. The fact that a photograph was taken at a time when developing film was still a costly process, selection was driven by an evaluation of the potential future value of the images. The subsequent decision about which photographs were kept and passed on to the next generation, makes photography a particularly rich source of information as it is not only the materiality of the object but also its context.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nExploring a magician\u2019s album<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Albums add another layer of context as they are curated collections of photographs that relate to each other and are part of a composition. Albums are designed to tell a story and to illustrate a particular theme or topic.1<\/sup> In the context of a research project about the Luxembourg funfair \u201cSchueberfouer\u201d in the 1960s, C\u00b2DH gained access to five albums containing photographs of magicians and other artists from the 1950s and 1960s, which belong to the Luxembourg based magician club \u201cMagica Club Letzebuerg\u201d. The association has received these albums from one of its founding members and former presidents Roland Peusch. His stage name was Perol and he was a Luxembourgish magician and actor, who was born in the 1940s. Plus, he was a member of the variety programme of the National Lottery and RTL T\u00e9l\u00e9 Luxembourg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The albums compiled by Peusch tell the story of magical performances in Luxembourg and the various events attended by the public. The five albums with self-adhesive cover sheets, popular in the 1960s, are remarkable for their ability to eliminate the need for individual corner gluing. However, a risk of damage arises when attempting to remove the photographs from the album for scanning. It was therefore decided to scan the album pages as they were.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Image capture of this unique collection posed a number of issues, many of which are well known when working with older and fragile photo albums. We carried out an initial inspection and documentation stage, noting the overall condition of the albums, and any remedial action needed before proceeding. Typically you would expect to see wear and tear on the album covers, and faults resulting from long term storage and other conditions from temperature and humidity. This set (for the age) was in good condition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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