Cartographies of Africa and Asia (1800-1945)

The Perthes Collection, legacy of the publishing houses Justus Perthes in Gotha, Justus Perthes in Darmstadt and VEB Hermann Haack in Gotha, is one of the most important map publishing archives in continental Europe. Among other things, it consists of map collection encompassing almost 200,000 sheets. It includes both the maps produced in Gotha in all stages of production as well as the international map production acquired by the publishing house since the beginning of the 19th century. Thanks to the support of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, a first central part of the map collection is now being catalogued and made accessible worldwide. Within two years, more than 35,000 maps of Africa and Asia from the years 1800-1945 will be catalogued, digitized, and made available to the (specialist) public. All digitised material will be published via the Digital Historical Library of Erfurt/Gotha (DHB), hosted by the Thuringian University and State Library in Jena.