Luxembourg history in your lap(top)

Last fall, Yves Maurer learned about a new book that documented the 19th century story about a group of Luxembourgers who, with great fanfare before their friends and neighbors, set sail for better lives in Brazil, only to be denied entry after their long journey; the farmland and prosperity they had been promised was just a scam.

It sounded like an interesting read, but Mr. Maurer was curious and wanted to do a bit of research first. So he consulted a handy 1858 issue of the Luxembourger Wort. In minutes, he was studying accounts of what happened to these travelers, in their own words.

“Whenever I learn something new, I take a look here,” Mr. Maurer explained, referring to www.eLuxemburgensia.lu, a web site managed by the Bibliothèque Nationale de Luxembourg (BNL) which contains digitally scanned copies of more than 2.5 million articles from 43,000 periodicals; the oldest in the collection dating back to 1704. Mr. Maurer is responsible for keeping the technology behind eLuxemburgensia running and up to date.

History in three languages

eLuxemburgensia launched in 2002, intended as a way to reach and educate new audiences online while preserving fragile original copies of older publications for future generations. Through the web site, visitors can explore the history of Luxembourg from their own computers; scanning copies of old newspapers, periodicals, and black and white postcards of events and daily activities in Luxembourg dating more than a century old.

Links to articles on eLuxemburgensia can be e-mailed directly for faster access in the future, or periodicals can be downloaded in whole as a PDF file. The text of most newspapers scanned into the system can also be translated into English, French, or German through a built-in translation feature.

Tablet users have the added benefit of being able to flip through turn-of-the-century newspapers on the go with the eLuxemburgensia iPad application, launched recently by BNL and available free of charge through iTunes.

Unique uses

While its primary users tend to be researchers, professors, students and those engaging in ancestral searches, the site continues to gain new popularity every year. BNL reports that since 2007, the total number of visits to eLuxemburgensia has more than doubled every single year, with more than 1 million people having utilized the site’s digitized newspapers, periodicals and postcards.

“Searches tend to start basic, but people go further and further. The site helps them to reconnect with the library,” said Martine Mathay, who acquires and manages the inventory of historic periodicals for the collection.

Beyond genealogy and research, she believes that the site is also especially helpful to people new to Luxembourg: “It can even be used as a strategy for getting acquainted with the country through history.”

One of the most unique ways that Mr. Maurer and Ms. Mathay have seen the site used is taking place in the commune of Mamer, just west of Luxembourg Ville. This is where historian Jos Thiel has used news clippings found on eLuxemburgensia to document the modern history of his commune on his web site, Mambra.lu.

What’s interesting to Mr. Thiel about being able to read newspapers from the past is that it adds a more personal dimension to history. “You find the names of people you don’t find in history books. They are normal people doing normal things,” said Mr. Thiel.

Daily exhibits

Visitors also reconnect with the library through online exhibits. A historian works with BNL to select articles and photos to feature on the eLuxemburgensia home page that change frequently, so people can learn something about the past without having to spend time searching.

Recent bits of history in the spotlight have included images from Grevenmacher’s Fête du Raisin et du Vin from the 1930s – posted in time to coincide with the 2011 festival – and a news clipping from the placement of the first Voie de la Liberté marker, laid in Luxembourg Ville in 1947; the markers commemorate the path taken by the Allied forces during World War II to liberate France, Luxembourg and Belgium.

But while these events and the rest of Luxembourg’s long history fade further into the past, it will always be available, accessible, and easy to read on www.eLuxemburgensia.lu.