Graphical Collections
The regional library also houses a collection of graphical works, with a focus on the regional and cultural history of North Hesse. This includes drawings, prints, photographs and early picture postcards with landscape and town views, architectural drawings and portraits.
Historical photographs form the collection's largest part, which is constantly being expanded. It includes:
- Picture postcards of Kassel
- Historical photos of Kassel
- Collection Hans Germandi: photos of Kassel
- Historical photos of monuments, town views and half-timbered houses in North Hesse
- Portraits
The particularly valuable prints are kept in the Special Collections Department. Particularly noteworthy are the maps of Hessian "Ämter" (low-level administrative departments of the landgraviate) between the Rhine and the Weser by Wilhelm Dilich and the hand drawings of Landgrave Moritz.
Due to the 1941 air raid, there is no complete inventory of this collection. However, provisional inventories are available for part of the collection relating to Hesse and Kassel:
Digital Images
Digital images from this collection can be found in the online archive ORKA.
Some of the historical photographs originate from the private collection of Kassel's well-known chronicler Hans Germandi. Kassel University Library provides access to Hans Germandi's photo collection and his documented illustrated lectures via the online archive ORKA. Together with the Historical Photo Collection, this collection forms an invaluable archive documenting Kassel in the time before its destruction during the Second World War.
Further digitized material on the subject of North Hesse can be found at Hassiaca digital.