Early this morning I’m off to the Europeana Open Culture conference in Amsterdam. With over 300 attendees from libraries, archives and other heritage institutions from all over Europe, it’s an important forum to discuss the issues of creating, discovering and disseminating digital collections.Funded directly by the European Commission, Europeana is a free web portal, bringing together a wide variety of digital collections from institutions across the member nations. Currently, the National Library of Wales is contributing content through the eContentPlus Progamme under the theme of Travel.
As part of this work, we are digitising 574 drawing volumes, containing over 35,000 drawings and watercolours, from the amateur sketches of wealthy travellers to the field sketchbooks of professional artists.
The collection covers the period from the 18th to the 20th century, but the bulk of the volumes date from the 19th century. Amongst the 18th century volumes the most important are the works of Alexander Cozens (1717-1786) and his son John Robert (1752-1797), P. J. de Loutherbourg (1748-1812), Moses Griffith (1749-1819), and Thomas Jones, Pencerrig (1742-1803).
The volumes are mainly filled with landscapes of Wales, many following a particular topographical route. During the 19th century it became fashionable for tourists to illustrate their tours with their own sketches. The works of John Parker (1798-1860) and Edward Pryce Owen (1788-1863) are good examples of this.
Sir John Williams, the founding benefactor of the Library, donated several of the items found in the collection, including a volume of Welsh watercolours by Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827).
With the potential for sweeping budget cuts in the public sector across Europe over the next few years, it will become more important to develop relations with other institutions by pooling resources, sharing knowledge and creating partnerships. By attending these conferences and contributing to Europeana, we hope to ensure that the National Library of Wales and its rich collections can be appreciated across the world.
The Library’s collection of Drawing Volumes will be available through the Europeana web portal and on the Library’s own website early next year.