Digital photographic archives for environmental and historical studies: an example from Ethiopia

The illustrative power of a set of repeat photographs is often stronger than that of other scientific output, but historical photographs are also a very useful research tool and object. Here we demonstrate how historical photographs in Ethiopia are used in studies on landscape and land use changes, soil erosion and geomorphology, history and historical context, livelihood and archaeology. Further, using the case study of Ethiopia, the location, accessibility and quality of digital archives of historical photographs is discussed as well as the way in which they can be used in research. Historical landscape photographs that are available in major archives may now largely be traced and often obtained through the Internet, as libraries increasingly are digitising collections and making them available online. Institutions that do not make at least part of their collection available online see decreasing numbers of end users, as opposed to a majority of archives which revaluate their collection by making it available online.

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