TechHeritage: An exhibition as a living repository of knowledge Students present objects from university collections

An instant camera from the 1960s, an electronic pocket calculator and a school wall map from the 1950s: the University Library is hosting the exhibition “TechHeritage. University Collections in Dialogue”. On display are the students’ work from a course in the 2025/2026 winter semester, featuring various objects from a total of three collections at TU Braunschweig.

The students catalogued a total of over 600 objects. Photo credit: Clemens Janke/TU Braunschweig

The exhibition showcases various collections of educational maps, which serve as historical records of their time. Photo credit: Luca Diez Aguilar

An instant camera from the 1960s is also part of the exhibition. Photo credit: Luca Diez Aguilar

Some of the exhibits are regional items, such as this calculating machine from a company in Braunschweig. Photo credit: Luca Diez Aguilar

The exhibition was created in collaboration with students. Photo credit: Luca Diez Aguilar

The exhibition emerged from the project “TechHeritage TUBS. Exploring Collections – Sharing Knowledge – Shaping the Future” and was realised as part of a collaboration between the Institute of History at TU Braunschweig and the Institute of Visual Communication at Braunschweig University of Art. The idea for the exhibition developed during the course “Hands-on History: Interdisciplinary Exploration of the Material Cultural Heritage of TU Braunschweig”. The seminar focused on research-based learning. Students worked directly with the collection objects and also exchanged views with academic experts from Göttingen, Wrocław, Berlin and Braunschweig on the future of academic collections. “I wanted to showcase the students’ valuable work to a wider audience,” says curator Clemens Janke from the Institute of History, who led the course and also launched the “TechHeritage” project.

Students catalogued over 600 collection items

The items on display come from three Braunschweig collections: the Metrology Collection of the Institute of Geodesy and Photogrammetry, the Teaching Map Collection of the Institute of History, and the Technical Heritage Collection/Museum of TU Braunschweig.
The students not only catalogued the objects used for the exhibition but also inventoried a total of more than 600 collection items. A total of 16 objects were ultimately selected for the exhibition in the University Library.

Exhibit from polar research

Among the objects are, for example, school wall maps from regional publishers dating from the 20th century. A map from the 1950s illustrates basic geographical concepts that were taught at the time. It offers insights into historical worldviews of that era and encourages visitors to critically examine such representations. Another exhibit is an inclinometer, also known as a “clinometer”, which was used in polar research. Visitors can thus trace the history of TU Braunschweig’s research in Antarctica and Greenland during the 1990s. An instant camera from the late 1960s, which fundamentally transformed amateur photography, has been selected for the exhibition from the Technical Heritage Collection/Museum of the TU Braunschweig. Photography became more spontaneous, and the camera became part of everyday memory-making. The exhibition also includes regional collection items, such as those from the calculating machine manufacturer Brunsviga.

Furthermore, the exhibition’s conception focused not only on cataloguing the collection items but also on fostering an exchange between generations. As part of a citizen science initiative, contemporary witnesses shared their first-hand knowledge of the objects with the students.

Exhibition showcases the material cultural heritage of TU Braunschweig

The exhibition aims to firmly embed TU Braunschweig’s collections in research and teaching whilst making them accessible to a wider public. The project seeks to illustrate how technological developments can shape social and economic processes. At the same time, it highlights the TU Braunschweig’s tangible cultural heritage as part of the city’s and region’s history.