Collection of postcards belonging to Marija and Krunoslav Leko - archival processing and digitization

Abstract

The collection of Marija and Krunoslav Leko provides one whole, in time and space, a representation of Dubrovnik and its surroundings from the beginning of the publication of postcards until 1918. It contains 1,795 postcards stored in seven albums. The distinguishing feature of a postcard is that it does not only contain a message that one person sends to another, but also a pictorial representation that allows people to get to know the world. By using printing techniques, which enable cheaper production, postcards became more accessible to ordinary people and as such a part of mass culture. The collectors’ decision to exclusively collect postcards with the theme of the Dubrovnik area created a valuable collection that complements our comprehension of Dubrovnik publishing of the late 19th and early 20th century. The collectors donated their collection to the State Archives in Dubrovnik in 2021, on the condition that it be fully digitized and thereby become available to all citizens of Dubrovnik and other visitors to the website of the State Archives in Dubrovnik. The paper analyzes and describes the collection according to several criteria, and was created with the intention of presenting the structure, content and brief analysis of the collection prior to its arrival at the State Archives in Dubrovnik, as well as the structure of the collection after the archival processing and digitization. The paper presents the publishers in terms of their scope of work and the number of postcards in the collection, as well as the way in which the archival processing and digitization were organized.