Digitising the Archive: Behind the Scenes

To mark the 40th Anniversary of the opening of the Barbican Centre in 2022, the Barbican Archive partnered with Google Arts and Culture to begin the process of making our archive collection more accessible.

Though the majority of the collection has remained in good condition, there are exceptions. Dog-ears, rips, stains and other damage have appeared over the years. In order to photograph and store them safely, these documents needed to be repaired by expert paper conservators.

We started with drawings showing the design of the arts centre. Each of them had to be laid flat to be photographed by our Archive Digitisation Technician.

The equipment, loaned to us by Google Arts and Culture, photographs the images from above. Most of the architectural plans are so large and detailed that they have to be photographed in four sections and stitched together with software.

Using this process we have been able to digitise items from our collection that have not been shared publicly before.

Photographing archive material that is fragile and oversized requires great skill and patience. Thanks to this project the Barbican Archive is now accessible to more people.