With around 5,000 historical photographs, slides and negatives from the recent and older history of the town, the Kevelaer photo library provides an insight into the holdings of the town archive of the pilgrimage town of Kevelaer. The eight picture galleries are divided into the five villages of Kervenheim, Kevelaer, Twisteden, Wetten and Winnekendonk as well as three galleries on the topics of churches and pilgrimage, events and personalities from Kevelaer.
The photo library is intended to invite you to browse visually through the town's history and to encourage exchange: The town archive welcomes your inquiries or additions in the form of contemporary witness reports on individual images, anecdotes about events or if you provide us with your private or commercial images. You are welcome to contact us directly by e-mail.
If you have digital photos or films that are not yet in our image archive, we would be delighted if you could send them to us. We are also happy to accept your paper photos, albums, slide collections or film rolls on loan.
The city archive itself has further photos, not all of which can be shown on our website for copyright reasons, but some of which can be viewed in the reading room on request.
In November 2021, the Kevelaer municipal archive applied for funding from the WissensWandel Neustart Kultur funding program with the project "Kick-off for a digital municipal archive". In February, the archive finally received feedback that the proposed project had been positively considered by the expert jury and would be supported by the funding body with 90% of the costs covered.
The starting point for the project to digitize and record the archive's photographic holdings was the increased internal and external demand for photographic material. At the beginning of processing, the collection was not stored properly, i.e. loose in boxes without sorting. Due to the lack of order, it was not possible to find and make the photos available quickly. The first step in the project was therefore to collect all the photographic material, sort it thematically and classify it.
After sorting and structuring the image material from various areas of the administration, the core work of the project began: digitization. The photographs, slides and negatives were digitized piece by piece with the archive scanner and, if necessary, damaged areas were reworked. The photos, slides and negatives were then packed into boxes, envelopes and fanfolds suitable for archiving and recorded. The resulting data records were also sorted and stored securely.
As part of the project, around 18,500 photos, slides and negatives have been categorized and digitized so far. In addition, the collection has been indexed and packaged so that the image material can be stored protected from external influences and is quickly accessible when needed.
Although many of the photographs and images presented were taken as part of the town's administrative activities and are no longer subject to copyright, this portal, the Kevelaerer Fotothek, presents a mixed collection. All the images presented here are in the possession of the city archive, even if their origin cannot always be clearly proven. The archive therefore often tries to identify the authors/rights holders. For this reason, prior consultation with the city archives and verification for further use is essential. Provided that no copyright has to be observed, it is possible for the City Archive to pass on and use the original digital copies (without watermarks), especially for scientific purposes. In all other cases, the author/rights holder decides.
