Heidelberg University: Old Inventory of the Heidelberg Collection of Classical Antiquities
Reporting period: 1867–1930
The year 1848 is considered the founding year of the Heidelberg Collection of Classical Antiquities, as it was in that year that the University of Heidelberg provided a budget for the first time for the acquisition of archaeological teaching materials. The collection emerged from the so-called Antiquarium Creuzerianum, a small collection of coins and small-format plaster casts that had been donated in 1834 by students of the classical philologist Georg Friedrich Creuzer. It was successively expanded from 1848 onwards with original objects and copies (casts), particularly under Friedrich von Duhn, who was a professor at the Heidelberg Institute of Archaeology from 1880 to 1920.
The so-called Old Inventory of the Collection of Classical Antiquities at the University of Heidelberg is a bound collection of letters and lists for the acquisition of collection objects. They come from various senders and cover the period from the 1860s to 1930. In most cases, they are lists of objects with short descriptions that were offered, sold or donated to the Archaeological Institute of the University of Heidelberg. The letters thus provide important information about the acquisition and provenance of the collection objects as well as the people behind them. In many cases, they are the only available information.
