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A moment in time: from the digital record of a migrating library

Abstract

This paper draws on the work of the Arts & Humanities Research Council-funded Glasgow Cassirer Project, which makes correspondence and documents relating to the German philosopher Ernst Cassirer (1874-1945) available online. The paper concentrates on the relocation in 1933 of the Kulturwissenschaftliche Bibliothek Warburg, developed from the personal library of Aby Warburg (1866-1929), from its home in Hamburg to London, where it opened as the Warburg Institute in 1934. The problems which faced the emigre staff of the Library are discussed, as well as the circumstances facing the scholars most associated with the KBW in Hamburg, notably Cassirer, and their subsequent dispersal. Evidence is presented to challenge the view that the impact on British scholars of the newly-arrived Institute was limited

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