Special collections

Background

In addition to early Roman coins, HHU’s friends society has also made a small yet excellent collection of Roman and Egyptian crafts from the private collections of Dr Reinhard and Emmi Heynen available on permanent loan. The Egyptian collection is stored at ULB. In addition to figurines, terracotta items, amulets, scarabs and game playing pieces, it also includes a mummified falcon.

Content

112 Items

Indexing and usage

As part of the ‘Geschichte prägen’ (‘Shaping History’) digitalisation project, the Institute for Ancient History is currently processing the Egyptian collection comprehensively for the first time. Digitalised copies and indexing information are available in HHU’s Digital Coin Cabinet.
The originals can be accessed in the Special Reading Room.

Background

In around 1909, Alfred Flechtheim (1878–1937) entrusted his illustrated book collection on the Düsseldorf School of Painting as well as directories and sales catalogues on the same subject to what was then Düsseldorf State and City Library. After establishing his gallery in 1913, he ensured that both the gallery exhibition catalogues and the ‘Der Querschnitt’ magazine he founded (from 1920), also became part of the library collection.

Content

The collection includes all exhibition catalogues of the Flechtheim Gallery (mostly originals but also digital resources or photocopies), editions of ‘Der Querschnitt’ magazine from 1921 to 1933, the ‘Omnibus’ yearbooks from 1931 and 32, and most of the 30 portfolios, prints or issues of the Flechtheim Gallery that were published between 1920 and 1929, as well as around 30 books owned by Alfred Flechtheim and featuring his bookplate.

Indexing and usage

The entire collection can be searched and requested in the ULB catalogue.

Notation: Flechtheim

The old and special collections can be consulted in the Special Reading Room.

Inhalt

The collection comprises numerous boxed materials:

• Flyers and individual issues of newspapers associated with German history in the 19th century published between 1813 and 1871. Call number: ADG110(2)
• Berlin flyers from the 1918/19 revolutionary period and the early period of the German Republic published between 1848 and 1925. Call number: ADG118(2).
• Flyers and newspapers on the Reichstag elections in 1907, the Reichstag elections in 1911 and individual resources from the time of the Weimar Republic in around 1923. Call numbers: ADG96(2) and ADG784(2).

Content

Approx. 850 sheets

Indexing and usage

Cataloguing has not yet been completed, however the parts of the collection with the call numbers ADG110(2) or ADG118(2) can be accessed in their entirety in the ULB catalogue and requested using these call numbers. Available for consultation in the Special Reading Room.

The resources with call numbers ADG784(2) and ADG96(2) have been indexed in full and can be searched in the ULB catalogue by call number. The flyers can be consulted in a digital format at the electronic reading station in the Special Reading Room.

Background

The Fries archive aimed to support the publication of the “collected writings” of philosopher Jakob Friedrich Fries (1773–1843) initiated by professors Gert König and Lutz Geldsetzer as well as to continue the Fries research begun by neo-Friesian Leonard Nelson. This extensive and resource-rich archive was housed at the ULB from the very start as the “Fries Collection”. As part of the book acquisitions, original editions of Friesian works (in part very rare ephemera), secondary literature about Fries as well as Fries’ writings (some of which are valuable first editions) were purchased.

Content

Archive resources: 6 linear metres
Books: approx. 10 linear metres

Indexing and usage

Direct link to the collection in the Kalliope Union Catalogue. The collection is also described in a finding aid, which is currently being revised. The books can be searched in the ULB catalogue.

Call number(s): slg 90 (books), slg 90/Dok (archive resources)

Please request the resources by telephone or email for use in the Special Reading Room.

Background

Barbara Engemann-Reinhardt’s collection about the Polish physician, author and educator Janusz Korczak (1878–1942) came to the ULB via HHU’s institute of education. The collection comprising archive materials and books serves to preserve the memory of Korczak and to facilitate research. The holdings will be enriched with further resources wherever possible.

Content

4,0 linear metres

Indexing and usage

Direct link to the private collection in the Kalliope Union Catalogue. The collection is also described in a provisional finding aid. The books can be searched in the ULB catalogue. Call number(s): slg 15 (books), slg 15/Dok (archive resources)

Please request the resources by telephone or email for use in the Special Reading Room.

Background

The Moreanum includes works by the English humanist and statesman Sir Thomas More (1478–1535) as well as secondary literature about him. A copy of the first folio edition of ‘The Works of Sir Thomas More, 1557’ (Huth/Burns/Leyel/Borowitz edition) forms the collection’s centrepiece.

Content

Around 2.000 volumes

Indexing and usage

The entire collection can be searched and requested in the ULB catalogue.
Call number: mor...
The old collections and special collections can be consulted in the Special Reading Room.

Background

The coins reflect the history of a region in southwestern Asia Minor during the Late Archaic and Classical periods, when it needed to assert itself in the spheres of interest between the Greek city states on the one hand and the Persian Empire on the other. The Winsemann Falghera Collection is on permanent loan to ULB.

Content

250 silver Lycian coins

Indexing and usage

With the exception of 21 coins subsequently added to the collection, the Winsemann Falghera Collection has been published in its entirety:
VISMARA, N., 1989. Monetazione arcaica della Lycia; Vol. 2: La collezione Winsemann Falghera. Milan: Ennerre

The collection is currently being digitalised and will be available in HHU’s Digital Coin Cabinet soon.
The originals can be accessed in the Special Reading Room.

Background

The valuable and rare philosophical holdings in the old book section include encyclopaedias, lexicons, first/original editions and selected works as well as old prints of classical philosophical literature. In addition to the actual philosophical lexicons, the collection among others contains major monolingual dictionaries, major standard linguistic and cultural encyclopaedias as well as the most important specialised lexicons in the individual disciplines for research into the history of terms. Noteworthy acquisitions for example include: Joh. Micraelius, ‘Lexicon Philosophicum’ (1653); Joh. Baptista Bernardus, ‘Seminarium totius Philosophiae’ (2nd edition, 1599); Armandus de Bellovisu, ‘De declaratione difficilium terminorum Theologiae’ and many more, in addition to numerous old prints of the classics in scholastic folio editions.

Content

Around 3,500 volumes (approx. 180 linear metres)

Indexing and usage

The entire collection can be searched and requested in the ULB catalogue.
Call number: slg 5
Available for consultation in the Special Reading Room.

Background

The poster collection has the following thematic focuses:
– ‘Parole der Woche’: the slogans of the NSDAP’s official wall newspaper. 268 resources, 84 x 120 cm format, December 1937 to February 1943, 52 issues per year
– Playbills from theatres in Düsseldorf (Opernhaus, Kammerspiele, Städtische Bühnen Düsseldorf, etc.). Around 470 resources for the period from 1930 to 1952.
The rest of the collection comprises a cross-section of posters from the fields of culture and administration of the city of Düsseldorf (appeals, concerts, speeches, tourism, etc.)
from 1930 to 1970.

Content

Almost 2,000 posters

Indexing and usage

The posters are currently listed in the ULB catalogue.
Call number: pla...
Available for consultation in the Special Reading Room.

Background

In 1933, ULB took over the valuable collection of Städtisches Hindenburg-Gymnasium secondary school, which comprises around 37,000 school curricula, which have been kept together. It contains the curriculum abstracts and annual reports from schools all across the former German Empire for the years 1840 to 1910 (with a few gaps). Together with the existing inventory of curricula from schools in Düsseldorf and the administrative region, the collection contains around 39,000 resources. Of these, more than half are from the 19th century. Classical philology, education and school history as well as general history form the thematic focuses.

Content

Approx. 39,000 resources

Indexing and usage

The collection can be searched and requested in the ULB catalogue. It has also been digitalised in full and is available in ULB’s Digital Collections.
Call number: q...
Titles published up to 1850 can be consulted in the Special Reading Room; titles published from 1851 are available in the reading room on the second floor of the Central Library.

Background

The oldest playbills at ULB date back to 1802 and the collection includes 13,000 resources from this date up until 1918. Meaning that ULB has the most comprehensive collection of Düsseldorf playbills from the 19th century. The remaining playbills date from the years 1919 to 1945, occasionally up to 1957.
The playbills are from Stadttheater Düsseldorf and Apollo-Theater Düsseldorf. In the case of Stadttheater, they are supplemented with a collection of theatre scripts.

Content

Approx. 60,000 sheets, of which 5,000 are from Stadttheater Düsseldorf.

Indexing and usage

The playbills from between 1802 and 1918 were indexed and digitalised as part of a project funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG): Düsseldorfer Theaterzettel in den Digitalen Sammlungen (Düsseldorf playbills in the Digital Collections)
Call number: KW... (playbills), DLIT... (theatre scripts)
Titles published up to 1850 can be consulted in the Special Reading Room; titles published from 1851 are available in the reading room on the second floor of the Central Library.
Düsseldorf playbills in the Digital Collections