Collecting Knowledge in the Province

Even outside the metropolises, extensive collections emerged in the 'long' 19th century. Starting from Gotha, Göttingen, and Lübeck, the project aims to comprehensively explore the motives and constellations of collecting as formations of knowledge in the three locations. The investigation will focus on how collections shaped various (urban, academic, courtly, and economic) knowledge cultures and which practices and research methods developed around the collections and their objects. Our initial thesis is that knowledge was produced at the respective locations by various actors in different ways. The knowledge places in the provinces were at the center of various circulation processes; global and local networks intertwined through the accumulation of knowledge objects, engaging in mutual exchange. Universities and courts, bourgeois clubs and societies, as well as commercially oriented trading companies and publishing houses, brought together data and things that served knowledge production—a contribution that has often been overlooked in the classical history of universities and related discipline histories.

Despite the different urban starting points, similar and therefore comparable collections exist in Gotha, Göttingen, and Lübeck, which formed and evolved in different local, institutional, and cultural contexts over the course of the 19th century: For Gotha, the continuously expanded collections of the dukes in the 19th century (today: Friedenstein Castle Foundation Gotha) are relevant. The transformations of the collections during the 19th century, especially the establishment of the dual duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1825 and the opening of the Ducal Museum in 1879, are particularly interesting to explore. In addition to the ducal house, Gotha was home to the Justus Perthes publishing house, which, as an increasingly globally operating company, became a globally active center for map production at the same time. The publishing house also actively participated in the organization of expeditions, such as Theodor von Heuglin's 1861/62 Africa expedition. Such endeavors were intended to enrich local natural history collections; Heuglin succeeded in selling bird specimens from East Africa to the dukes. The multifaceted activities in Gotha significantly contributed to the cultures of natural history in the 19th century. Moreover, they were closely connected to other places, especially the University of Göttingen. Here, collections were initially gathered, especially in the university environment. Initially, individual professors built collections relevant to their research areas, and then the Academic Museum as an institution was established. In Lübeck, the oldest collections trace back to the "Society for the Promotion of Beneficial Activities." They grew during the 19th century in a city shaped by regional and global trade through civic engagement and extensive collector networks, both locally and globally. In 1893, they were combined in the newly founded "Museum am Dom."

By analyzing objects, places, institutions such as publishers, associations, societies, or universities, as well as individuals and other actors, the project aims to understand how collections generate (object) knowledge, how specific forms of knowledge formed independent areas of knowledge in specific constellations and institutional settings, thereby contributing to the formation of disciplines. It will thus contribute to the investigation of the question of where collections emerged in local, global, and increasingly colonial contexts since the mid-19th century and how they broadly contributed to knowledge generation, ultimately challenging the common separation into 'metropolises' and 'provinces.' The project brings together colleagues from the University of Göttingen, the Center for Cultural Research Lübeck, and the University of Erfurt. The plan is to continue the work as part of a larger collaborative project.

_{Image: Martin Theodor von Heuglin, Ornithologie Nordost-Afrikas, der Nilquellen und Küsten-Gebiete des Rothen Meeres und des nördlichen Somal-Landes, Bd. 1, Abt. 1, Cassel 1869.}