Soon Pictura will start on a number of projects subsidized by Bureau Metamorfoze. The bureau is responsible for the preservation of Dutch paper heritage and uses very strict quality requirements. We are very proud that Pictura was chosen for these assignments.

Metamorfoze is the national program for preservation of paper heritage. The collaboration between the National Library of the Netherlands and the Nationaal Archief is financed by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science and coordinated through Bureau Metamorfoze. Preservation is done not only by fighting the autonomous decay, but also by digitizing original works to at the very least secure their contents. This is done using very strict guidelines because it deals mostly with precious and vulnerable pieces. You can find more information about Metamorfoze here.

Thesaurieren Ordinaris
For Stadsarchief Amsterdam we will digitize the Thesaurieren Ordinaris archive. The Thesaurieren Ordinaris were responsible for the city's finances and public services from the end of the 16th century to the start of the 19th century. As it says on the website of the city archive: "Two things thread their way through the archive ...: money and the exceptional role of Amsterdam in the Dutch Golden Age. ... That is why the archive tells us the story of the county of Holland and the Republic."

Natuurkundige Commissie (Natural Committee)
In 1820 King William I founded the National Museum of Natural History (Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie, nowaydays called Naturalis) and the Natural Committee by Royal Order. The committee's task was to research the "natural products of overseas territories", with its main focus on the Dutch East Indies. The committee was dissolved in 1850, but during its thirty years of existence it managed to build up a large collection of natural and ethnological objects, accompanied by documentation and commentary by expedition members. Naturalis still manages that collection today. The part that Pictura will digitize exists of correspondence, reports, notes, field notebooks, dictations and drawings.

If you would like to find out more about digitizing valuable or fragile pieces and would like to know how we will treat your material, you can find more information elsewhere on our website or contact Jeroen Bloothoofd, our account manager digitalization.