Collection 180.06 - glass slides

Since 1977 the archive of the German East Asia Mission (DOAM) has been located in the central archive of the Evangelical Church of the Palatinate in Speyer: 3000 glass pictures, 1500 photos, 1000 cliché impressions, 19 metres of printed matter and 20 metres of files. After successful appeals for donations, the project to develop the glass slide stock was started in spring 1999. For conservational and systematic reasons, the glass slides previously listed under only a few numbers were removed from the 180.01 department and assigned to a separate 180.06 department. The condition of the total of 3000 glass images was questionable from a conservational point of view before the start of the backup filming. Numerous glass carriers exhibited cracks, some showed severe fractures, some already missing broken glass pieces. Therefore, the roughly presorted glass slides were cleaned in a first step, sorted according to motifs, duplicates sorted out, filmed and then digitalized. While the originals are packed for archiving and stored in a special magazine, the 1675 images filmed after the duplicate check are available on 17 CD-ROMs at the touch of a button. A further 80 glass slides from the collection of the Swiss East Asia Mission (SOAM) were added to the collection in spring 2003. The total stock of glass pictures comprises 60 percent China (1000), 25 percent Japan (450) and 15 percent motifs from all over the world (250). The proportion of mission images is 300 for China and 150 for Japan; they comprise about a quarter of the total stock. The glass slides were made between approx. 1860 and approx. 1945. A detailed classification was prepared to break down the range of motifs. In the general part, motifs of Christian art from all over the world form a special focus. There are also travel pictures from Africa, North America, the Orient, Russia and South Asia. Here, city views, monuments as well as customs and traditions are the preferred motifs. The most comprehensive collection is represented by pictures from China. The spectrum ranges from landscapes and cityscapes to contemporary events, customs and traditions such as Peking opera, opium smoking and gambling, to economy, transport and traffic as well as religion with temples, deities, monks and believers. The East Asia Mission in China was particularly characterized by its commitment to education and health care. The portraits of missionaries and their families, teachers and students, doctors, nurses and patients before and after treatment are therefore a focal point. In addition to buildings such as schools, hospitals and health stations, numerous pictures provide insights into everyday life, including school lessons and medical care. Finally, there are also motifs for leisure, school sports and festivals, and the Japanese pictures also include landscapes and city views. The holy mountain Fujiyama or Fujisan forms a focal point. The current events are particularly characterized by the veneration of the emperor in connection with the growing national shinto in the two decades before the Second World War. Rice cultivation and silk production show the pillars of the traditional economy; next to them there are pictures of modern industry, including automobile construction. A further focus are the many commercially acquired glass slides of traditional customs, which have become known under the term Yokohama photography. They were popular souvenirs at the time and were marketed by local photographers in their thousands. These include photo series of wedding ceremonies and celebrations, but also staged studio shots of the tea ceremony and flower arrangement, as well as religious motifs such as Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples, deities, priests, believers, pilgrims and various ceremonies and processions. The motifs from Japan also include portraits of missionaries and their families. There are also portraits of Japanese pastors and other Christian personalities. In contrast to the mission to China, there are also numerous group photos of local churches. In addition to the buildings of the Mission, such as churches, kindergartens, student dormitories and parish halls, many pictures provide insights into the parish work, such as Bible reading, baptisms, free times, anniversaries and celebrations, especially Christmas, etc. The entire collection of glass slides is not only indexed by title and classification, but can also be searched using a full-text search based on the database. Therefore, the otherwise usual index is omitted from the printed index. In order to ensure the highest possible hit rate and to satisfy the different spellings of place names in particular, two spellings were generally used. For Chinese terms, the Pinyin system, which is now standard in science, was used. In addition, established German names were retained, such as Tsingtau, Beijing and Kanton. Also with the Japanese terms particularly regarding the place names double-tracked was proceeded. In addition to the Hepburn system, which is widely recognized in the scientific field and includes the marking of elongation vowels, names such as Tokyo and Kyoto are used without diacritical signs according to the spelling customary in German. Normally, the generally used spellings appear first, followed by the usual scientific transcriptions in brackets. The foreign-language terms usually begin with a capital letter in order to distinguish them from the continuous text. The archive software program AUGIAS does not currently offer italics, which is usually used in this case. Frequently used abbreviations in the description of motifs are: v.o.n.u. = from top to bottom, v.r.n.l. = from right to left. For the indexing of the glass slides, the entire file stock of the DOAM was examined and the publications of the pictures in journals, yearbooks and cliché collections were used for dating. The research also extended to various scientific institutions outside Speyer, including the libraries of the Art History, Sinology and Japanology Institutes of the University of Heidelberg and the German Library in Frankfurt am Main. For valuable hints I thank Annette Bügener, Alexander Hofmann, Sukyong Kim, Christian Numrich, Noriko Ohya and Cordula Treimer. The discussions with Mrs. Kiyoko Schneiss, Heidelberg, were invaluable for the development of the Japanese pictures. During her repeated visits to Speyer, she gave me extraordinary insights into Japanese history and culture before 1945. I thank her and her husband, Father Paul Schneiss, very much for their help. The glass slides were indexed both with the printed matter of the DOAM (180.08) and with the photo archive (180.07), which had not yet been fully indexed, insofar as the motifs were indexed by recourse to these holdings. In connection with the completion of the indexing of the digitised glass slides of the German East Asia Mission, the finding aids to the file holdings and printed materials were also converted to database indexing. The following finding aids of the mission can already be searched by full text search in the Central Archives:180.01 (German East Asia Mission)180.02 (Swiss East Asia Mission)180.08 (printed matter).the digitized glass slides can only be viewed on site in the Central Archives. In the AUGIAS distortion program, the motifs can be viewed directly via thumbnails. The images have an overall good quality of work and are available for use together with the image information. The finding aid has been produced in printed form:-for the Zentralarchiv-for the Evangelische Missionswerk (EMS)-for the board of the Deutsche Ostasienmission (DOAM), attn. Mr. Pfarrer i. R. Paul Schneiss, HeidelbergFollowing institutes and institutions have been informed about the stock and received a file of the finding aid if they were interested:- Prof. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Lothar Ledderose, Kunsthistorisches Institut, Abteilung Ostasien, Universität Heidelberg, Seminarstrasse 2, 69117 Heidelberg- Prof. Dr. Siegfried Englert, Ostasieninstitut, Rheinufer-Strasse 6, 67061 Ludwigshafen- Prof. Dr. Peter Kupfer, FB 23, Abteilung Ostasiatische Sprachen und Kulturen, Universität Mainz, An der Hochschule 2, 76726 Germersheim- Prof. Dr. Roman Malek, China Zentrum e.V.., Arnold-Janssen-Strasse 30, 53757 Sankt Augustin- Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Matzat, Chairman, Studienwerk Deutsches Leben in Ostasien e.V., Am Roemerlager 1, 53117 Bonn- Dr. Monika Gänßbauer, China-Infostelle, Evangelisches Missionswerk, Normannenweg 17-21, 20537 Hamburg- Marineschule Mürwik, Library, Kelmstrasse 14, 24944 Flensburg- Prof. Dr. Thomas O. Höllmann, Institute of German Studies,...

East Asia mission

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