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Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
The State and University Library of Bremen has cataloged the letters of Adolf Bastian, a Bremen-born ethnologist and the founding director of the Museum of Ethnology in Berlin. Bastian is widely regarded as the founder of ethnology as an academic discipline.
Born in Bremen in 1826, Bastian was a ship’s surgeon and researcher who dedicated himself to ethnology, undertaking multiple voyages around the world to study it. His travels took him to Australia, the South Pacific, South and North America, South Asia, and the African coast. He published extensively on his journeys and died in 1905 in Port of Spain, Trinidad, during his ninth world circumnavigation. Bastian was the founding director of the Museum of Ethnology in Berlin and is considered the founder of ethnology as an academic discipline. In 1869, he became a university lecturer and later a professor of ethnology at the University of Berlin.
The State and University Library of Bremen holds over 150 letters exchanged between Bastian and his publisher, Hermann Costenoble. These letters offer insights into academic work, publishing practices, and travel planning in the nineteenth century. Recently, history students analyzed the letters as part of a seminar, making them accessible to researchers. In the process, the students improved their ability to read old cursive scripts and gained insight into the cultural and intellectual history of early ethnology.
The students were supported by Dr. Thomas Theye, whose dissertation explored the connections between ethnology and photography in the nineteenth century. Dr. Theye enriched the seminar with a lecture on the topic. “The intergenerational collaboration with an expert during the cataloging process provided new inspiration for everyone involved,” explains Dr. Maria Hermes-Wladarsch, head of the SuUB’s historical collections and university lecturer for the new seminar, which is hosted by Prof. Dr. Cornelius Torp’s research group. The letters are now cataloged in the Kalliope estate database (https://kalliope-verbund.info/gnd/findingaid?fa.id=DE-611-BF-87824&fa.enum=1...) and are available for research and study in the SuUB’s manuscript reading room in Bremen.
Dr. Maria Hermes-Wladarsch
Head of Historical Manuscripts at the State and University Library Bremen
Phone: 0421/218-59571
Email: hermes@suub.uni-bremen.de
Highlights from the Adolf Bastian archive: two handwritten letters and a contemporary portrait of th ...
Quelle: SuUB
Copyright: SuUB
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Geschichte / Archäologie, Kulturwissenschaften
überregional
Forschungsprojekte, Studium und Lehre
Englisch
Highlights from the Adolf Bastian archive: two handwritten letters and a contemporary portrait of th ...
Quelle: SuUB
Copyright: SuUB
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