At a time when the museum world finds itself focused mostly on recent history and contemporary art, it is not as self-evident for someone to be interested in some resident of Riga from the Age of Enlightenment, even if he was the founding father of museology in Latvia and maybe even in all of the Baltics. But this is exactly why it is worth getting to know more about von Himsel, as there will be enough work for researchers, translators, project managers, educators and brand managers to be done on him until 2023, when the first public museum of the Baltics named after Himsel will mark its 250th anniversary.
In 15th century Europe, along with the development of the book press, travel literature also became very popular. It reached its peak of popularity during the Age of Enlightenment, when it was key for each self-respecting gentleman to perfect his free and independent thinking. A well-known tool for doing so was the Grand Tour – a non-existent rule for one to go on a multiannual educational trip around Europe with the aim to become prepared for life.
During the 18th century, a doctor, encyclopaedist, and collector from the wealthy German Martin-Himsel family living in Riga – Nikolaus von Himsel (1729—1764) – went on his own Grand Tour. During a period of five years (1752—1757) he travelled around a large number of European countries of that time by visiting collectors and their offices, taking part in social life, studying the trends in medicine and public processes, as well as marking down his experiences in his notebooks – diaries.
Only a few years before Himsel embarked on his journey, the first and most popular Grand Tour guide of the time was published in London – Thomas Nugent’s (1700 – 1772) The Grand Tour – containing an exact description of most of the cities, towns and remarkable places of Europe. Our hero, who spent 10 months in Great Britain (from May 1755 to March 1756), could not have missed this bestseller.
It cannot be ruled out that, while reading the popular Grand Tour guides and getting inspired by them, Himsel dreamt about publishing a travel guide of his own – it is not for nothing that they say that even the authors of the most personal diaries involuntarily think about the potential readers. However, unlike the guide compiled by Nugent, which was published three times from 1749 to 1778, Himsel’s travel manuscript in three volumes, which, according to experts, does not have any encyclopaedic equivalents not only in the Baltics but in all of Europe, is yet to be published: having gone through the twists and turns of history, it has luckily been preserved and is kept at the Academic Library of the University of Latvia.
Whether naturally or by chance, now is the time when Nikolaus von Himsel’s experience of travelling around Europe in the 18th century has become important in Latvian museology. When looking at the situation with cautious optimism, the respective experience may also become meaningful to the wider public in the near future, since, unlike the narratives developed by modern-day social engineers, it provides a deeper perspective into the belonging of the Baltic region within Europe’s cultural, economic and social life without any over-exaggerations, on the basis of one’s personal experience and in a formal manner. The simple truth is that, when the author of the travel guide is describing his experiences, he reveals more about his own vision of life instead of the respective object. Here Dr. Edgars Ceskis, Himsel’s researcher and travel note translator, can be quoted:
“Although the ideas of Enlightenment do not appear in Himsel’s travel guide in a direct and theoretical manner often [..], they do transform as an attitude (author’s highlight) towards one or another social or economic phenomenon and form of a political system, thus not only indicating the political and societal beliefs of the author himself, but also the social and political sympathies that were apparently present in the respective environment, in which his personality grew and developed.”
In turn, the author of the idea of the project “Digitalisation, translation and scientific treatment of Nikolaus von Himsel’s travel guides by preparing a manuscript for publishing” – publisher and museologist Artis Ērglis – has the following to say about the necessity of the voluminous work ahead:
“It is especially important to uncover these old contacts during the modern age, when, after having gone through isolation during the second half of the 20th century, Latvia has once again entered the common space of Europe and is continuing to integrate within it. We can see through Himsel’s descriptions that Europe not only has an impact on our land nowadays, it also did so a long time ago.”
As is known, the extensive collection of various items that was left in a will to Riga City Council by the Himsel-Martin family became the basis of the Himsel Museum, which has been open to the public since 1773 and is in fact one of the oldest publicly available museums in Europe.
Therefore there is a good reason why Nikolaus von Himsel is considered a pioneer of Latvian museum tradition, and, according to different estimates, nowadays various institutions of Latvian cultural heritage are storing up to 100 museum items from the Martin-Himsel collection given to the city of Riga by Himsel. The items of the collection may be found at the Museum of the History of Riga and Navigation, Latvian Museum of Natural History, Latvian National Museum of Art, Pauls Stradiņš Museum of the History of Medicine, Academic Library of the University of Latvia and in other institutions.
Along with the fact that Himsel’s travel descriptions have previously appeared in the studies of only a few authors and mostly in the form of a mention, but have yet to be fully translated, analysed, published and become available to the public (only in the form of excerpts), the current knowledge regarding this relatively large collection of the core of Latvian museology is fragmented, unsystematic and insufficient. This is why the project of publishing Himsel’s travel descriptions in several languages with scientific remarks sets a goal for preparing a historic description of the Martin-Himsel family, as well as attempting to gather information on all of the known culture-historical evidence (objects and documents) regarding the respective family that is stored in institutions of Latvian history.
In parallel to the realisation of the main project, there is a plan to carry out a number of satellite projects with the aim to promote the respective initiative and attract supporters. The closest of these satellites is only a click away – it’s the section dedicated to Himsel on the new Creative Museum website, where we will publish news related to the project and, depending on the support of the cooperation partners, make the items of Himsel’s collection, which were originally meant for the public, available in a quality never seen before.
Another satellite project is the annually released Creative Museum planner, which will be made in the theme of Himsel’s Grand Tour in 2017 by highlighting its twelve most notable stops.
Last but not least, with a slight reference to the diary genre perfected by Himsel, the blog section of the new Creative Museum website is being renamed the diary, as every one of us secretly wants someone to read their diary.
Artis Ērglis (2013) “Digitalisation, translation and scientific treatment of Nikolaus von Himsel’s travel guides by preparing a manuscript for publishing”, submission of the project to the State Culture Capital Foundation
Edgars Ceske (2013) "Europe Through the Eyes of Baltic Germans: Travel Literature Testimonies (1750 – 1815)", Doctoral Thesis at the University of Latvia