Leica Museum

[nitroplait]

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Excuse my ignorance, but is there an actual Leica museum now with historians employed, or is it just an archive with archivists and displays of some of the interesting artefacts?

If there isn't a museum, any info if they plan to make one - and perhaps fund actual research?

I am sure they know that their rich history is a marketing asset, but from there to fund serious research (as opposed to pick historical sniplets that fits the current marketing strategy) is a costly step.

It  seems like they could benefit from allowing self-funded researchers access, but at the cost of loosing some control of the results.
Maybe too much to ask from a private company

[pedaes]

9 minutes ago, nitroplait said:

Excuse my ignorance, but is there an actual Leica museum now with historians employed, or is it just an archive with archivists and displays of some of the interesting artefacts?

Both. https://leicawelt.com/en/experiences/ernst-leitz-museum

[nitroplait]

36 minutes ago, pedaes said:

Both. https://leicawelt.com/en/experiences/ernst-leitz-museum

Alright, thanks. That looks like the kind of family oriented museum experience I would expect from a modern consumer oriented company. I wonder what kind of resources are used in the back office on the more historic research.
To be honest, I prefer the museums that don't digest the material too much for the visitors. JCII camera museum and Nikon Museum in Tokyo comes to mind - but those museums are only visited by geeks of course.

Edited June 30 by nitroplait

[pedaes]

30 minutes ago, nitroplait said:

the back office on the more historic research.

OK - we are in danger of derailing an important thread so we need to get this exchange moved to continue elsewhere' Apologies Roland.

There is a serious Archive with all the old records and many items, some gifted as collections in recent years. There is also the sad part.

Just before Dr.Kaufmann rescued the company it was in such a dire financial state that they sold off (auctioned) many items from the original museum to raise cash.

There are a number of books by Lars Nepotil covering a lot of the Museum/Archive collection (past and present) items, all professionally photographed to a very high standard. Worth getting if seriously interested.

 

 

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Edited June 30 by pedaes

[willeica]

Where do I begin? 

There is a Leica Archive, which I have visited on at least 6 occasions and which contains photos, documentation and literature, cameras and other equipment. Some of the non paper items are in display in cabinets around the main factory building and in the largely educational area designated as the Ernst Leitz Museum, but this is largely done in a random and somewhat unstructured fashion. The items in the 2018 book by Lars Netopil are largely not on display. What is inside the archive includes the vast camera collection of the late Rolf Fricke which is stored in large black plastic baskets and a lot of other bits and pieces. There is an email system whereby you can get details of the first delivery using a serial number but it more or less ends there. If you can get a visit to the archive the staff are helpful, but you have to know the right questions to ask or to ask see the relevant items. There is probably more expertise on Leica cameras outside the archive/museum than inside, but they have brought in professional archivists for photography, including one who is a darkroom expert.

The issues in Wetzlar are not unique. In Britain the Bradford Museum sent a lot of its collections to the V&A Museum in Knightsbridge, where , based on 2 visits I have made, they have been presented in a partial and uninspiring fashion. I am Chair of a Photo Museum in my own country (Ireland) and I am also working with our National Photographic Archive (part of the National Library of Ireland) to try to make sense of a collection of 5.5 million photographs most of which have never been scanned. In my experience the public interest is largely in the contents of images and not in the techniques and equipment.

If I can find the time I intend to travel to Wetzlar during a less busy period for a visit of a few days see how some of what is held in Wetzlar might be catalogued and presented in a useful fashion. Doing this will involve gaining the trust of the staff and also not making suggestions which will involve them in mountains of work while they still have their 'day jobs' to do. There is an internal staff catalogue of items which I saw some years ago, but this is not available to the public. How reliable this is, I cannot say. By far the most important body of records are those relating to the period 1911-36 when Barnack was still alive and working at the company. They have great people there, but they are under pressure doing various things and we as collectors may be able to help, but this has to be done in an orderly and structured fashion.

I could have written 10 times as much about collections and cataloguing them, but I hope that what I have written above explains the situation somewhat.

William