Archive of the neighbourhood colloquia
The masses do it? Cataloguing methods and ways of gaining knowledge when working with mass collections
Behind many objects that are presented as individual items in collections of various kinds, there are mass holdings in depots and storerooms.
They have been selected and emphasised – usually without making their former context clear. However, their significance can often only be understood in relation to their origin, the history of collecting and the organisations in which they were placed – whether they grew gradually, perhaps chaotically, or were systematically arranged. This makes it all the more exciting and urgent to deal with such more or less extensive collections. Because the reverse is also true: mass collections cause problems (and offer opportunities!): How can they be preserved? How can they be catalogued? What knowledge can be gained from analysing them? How can they be presented?
These questions and some of the answers to them were the focus of a conference held at the Stadtmuseum on 16 November 2018. The conference was organised in preparation for the exhibition »Die im Licht steh'n. Photographic Portraits of Dresden Citizens of the 19th Century« (15 February – 12 May 2019) organised by the Custody of the TU Dresden, the Saxon State Office for Museums at the Dresden State Art Collections and the Dresden City Museum. The speakers were not only dedicated to photo-historical collections, but also to natural history, cartographic and archaeological collections.
The contributions have been published online and are available for free download here.
