Eine Fotosammlung findet ihren Weg nach Hause

In the 1960s, the Museum of Communication bought the Engadin Press holdings and incorporated them into its in-house photo collection. The background to the takeover was not least numerous photographs of stagecoaches, post offices and early postbuses in the Engadine. As part of a comprehensive digitization project (ODIL project), all photo holdings of the Museum of Communication have been evaluated, indexed and digitized since 2019. Of the more than 500,000 images in the museum's collection, more than 150,000 photographs have already been digitized through this process. In the process, numerous other photographs were discovered that show motifs comparable to those of the Engadin Press collection.

The Fotostiftung Graubünden also owns prints and originals from the Engadin Press collection. The Museum of Communication and the Fotostiftung have therefore been in contact for some time to compare the holdings. The Fotostiftung Graubünden is closely connected to the canton and the people and uses exciting technologies to process the collection. It soon became clear that merging the holdings would represent great added value for the use of the photo collection with a strong regional connection. The wonderful photographs can have a greater impact at the place where they were taken by underlining memories and initiating dialogue. Because although a collection has a material value, it is above all a cultural asset. And cultural heritage only unfolds its true value in dialogue.

At the Museum of Communication, the management and foundation board therefore decided to return the collection to its place of origin. This return at the national level is rare, but it can be an important signal. It can work if the fundamental goal – the preservation of the cultural asset – is secured. It is clear to us that a return to the region of origin is the right solution in this case.