A Photographic Archive for the History of the Territory

The project aims at establishing a digital platform towards ensuring the preservation, the cataloguing and the effective and user-friendly utilization of a vast photographic historical heritage housed by the University of Florence, other public institutions and private collections. These collections which (even if they are not widely known but of great importance to the understanding of the history of the territory) have been studied, catalogued, digitalized and made available via a purposively designed digital platform.

This strategic project funded through the Call for Strategic Projects of Basic Sciences (“Bando Progetti strategici di ricerca di base”) D.R. 1374 (prot. 141735) of the 27 October 2015 and published on the Official Calls (No. 6923) from 29 October 2015 to 16 December 2015.

PI: Professor Margherita Azzari

The project aims at establishing a digital platform towards ensuring the preservation, the cataloguing and the effective and user-friendly consultation of a vast photographic historical heritage housed by the University of Florence, other public institutions and private collections. These collections – not widely known but of great importance to the understanding of the history of the territory – have been studied, catalogued, digitalized and made available via a purposively designed digital platform.

In fact, these collections are only accessible in printed format and thus can only be accessed and studied at each of the institution via hard-copy catalogues or, if available, digital catalogues. Hence, the digitalization and archiving of the photographic documents provides a crucial step not just for their promotion and dissemination – key issues related to furthering collective knowledge – but most of all for safeguarding and preserving them, as they constitute a highly important and extremely valuable heritage, also in the event of natural or man-made disasters.

The Collections:

  • The historical photographic collections now housed at the SAGAS Department, originally from the “Gabinetto di Geografia” established in 1883 and from the (Italian) Society of Geographic and Colonial Studies.
  • The photographic albums related to the first Italian Archeological Mission to Mesopotamia under the leadership of Giuseppe Furlani and Doro Levi (1930-1933) and housed by the Superintendency of Archaeology of the Tuscan Region.
  • The collection “Fotocielo” (1958-1978) owned by the “Aerofototeca” housed at the Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo e la Documentazione (ICCD -­‐ MIBACT).
  • The albums of the expeditions to Libya and East Africa (1930-37) housed at the Accademia dei Georgofili.

 

The albums related to the missions conducted by the technical staff of the Agronomic Institute for Overseas (Istituto Agronomico per l’Oltremare, IAO) in East Africa (1912-65). The IAO is still part of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.