For historians and those interested in heritage, Delpher is an established name. The platform was launched by the Royal Library (Koninklijke Bibliotheek) 10 years ago. Kees Ribbens, endowed professor of 'Popular historical culture and war' at ESHCC and attached to NIOD as a senior researcher, wrote a blog about it on historici.nl.
Delpher digitises millions of historical texts that you can read word for word for free and has recently added thousands more scans to its collection. This prompted Kees to write his story. He realised that you could lose yourself in the enthusiasm generated by such a rich abundance of source material - resulting in a snowball effect with newly emerging search terms. For him, it was a great moment to emphasise that Delpher deserves praise and appreciation and what it means for the practice of history by enthusiasts and professionals alike.
Read the full blog by Kees Ribbens (in Dutch)
- Professor