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Excursion to London for students of the Institute of History and HDSM, TU Darmstadt

From September 11th to 15th 2023, Prof. Dr. Nyhan facilitated an Excursion to London for a group of students from the Institute of History and HDSM, TU Darmstadt. The tour sought to explore the following questions:

  • What roles do digitisation and digital technologies play in the life of Heritage Institutions such as Museums, Galleries, Libraries and Archives? 

    Digitisation and Photography Department, V&A Museum, UK

  • How is digital technology allowing Historians to use and cross-search Heritage Collections in new ways?
  • What new opportunities and dangers is the digitisation of historical collections opening for Historical research and researchers?

“An idea of the vast scope of the process of digitisation of artefacts, an idea of its challenges and opportunities, is easy to grasp, when you stand in the cold cellars of the Natural History Museum in the company of millions and millions of specimen and have persons in charge of the process explain it to you. Hits you like a brick, too” Comment by Simon Rupprecht, Excursion participant.

Thanks to the curators and researchers who generously shared their knowledge and expertise, TU Darmstadt students learned about the new possibilities that digital technologies offer for remote and on-site access to artifacts. They engaged in discussions about the usage, advantages, and limitations of digital tools. The students had an opportunity to participate in guided tours of, and ‘behind the scenes” visits to heritage organizations. They also visited the professional laboratories utilized for digitizing cultural and historical heritage.

“Ganz andere Führungen bekommen zu können als normale Besucher und das in einer Vielzahl an Museen” Comment by Christopher Ronny Grünert, Excursion participant.

“It was very exciting to meet staff with that amount of responsibilty and also to experience parts of the museums that one would normally never see”. Comment by Markus-Tobias Lerch, Excursion participant.

Botany Historical Collections of the Natural History Museum

Botany Historical Collections of the Natural History Museum

Throughout the excursion, curator-led tours took placed in venues visited including: the British Museum; the UCL Centre for Digital Humanities Multimodal Digitisation Suite; the Natural History Museum (with a focus on the Herbarium of Sir Hans Sloane); the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) photography and digitization department; and UCL Art Museum. The group also visited the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology and the Flaxman Gallery, UCL.

Throughout the trip, students not only listened and gathered information from highly experienced researcher-curators but also actively shared their impressions and reflected on the role of digitized objects in historical research.

Der Blick hinter die Kulissen der Museen hat mir besonders gut gefallen. Es war eine Ehre all das zu sehen und mit den Menschen zu sprechen, die dort Arbeiten und somit etwas zu sehen, was man als normaler Besucher der Museen nicht zu Sehen bekommt ich” Comment by Anna Keser, Excursion participant.

“Talking to experts about the process of digitisation of historical artefacts gave me new perspectives”. Comment by Kenneth Frankfurth, Excursion participant.

“Mir hat der Besuch im Natural History Museum besonders gut gefallen. Das Gebäude ist sehr beeindruckend und wird Owens Vision eine “cathedral to nature” zu erbauen mehr als gerecht. Ebenso habe ich mich darüber gefreut, dass wir die Möglichkeit hatten hinter die Kulissen des Herbariums zu blicken und die Sammlungen von Sloane aus nächster Nähe zu sehen. Besonders fasziniert hat mich, dass es sich bei den Objekten nicht um bloße Austellungsstücke handelte, sondern dass mit Ihnen wirklich gearbeitet wird, um Sie zu digitalisieren. Das hat mir gezeigt, dass es sich bei Museen um lebendige Insitutionen handelt, die sich fortwährend weiterentwicklen”. Comment by Alisa Christ, Excursion participant.

“Die Führung im Victoria and Albert Museum durch das photography and digitisation department hat mir besonders gut gefallen, da wir hier interessante Einblicke hinter die Kulissen bekommen konnten und gesehen haben, wie bestimmte Artefakte optimal in Szene gesetzt werden können, um beispielsweise für eine Internetseite fotografiert zu werden, und wie stark eine „gute“ Fotografie Einfluss auf die Wirkung eines Gegenstandes nehmen kann”. Comment by Marit Reimann, Excursion participant.

“Experiencing the city and our stops’ through it was a positive overload of information. It was great to talk to experts from multiple fields and learn how they work with artifacts”. Comment by Emilio Bisignano, Excursion participant.

 

                  TU Darmstadt Students at the British Museum, 12 September 2023


OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
valentinaprishchepova (October 6, 2023). Excursion to London for students of the Institute of History and HDSM, TU Darmstadt. HDSM. Retrieved March 15, 2026 from https://hdsm.hypotheses.org/1201


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