The history of travel is also a history of paper, ink, and images: guidebooks, tourist maps, postcards, railway timetables, airline and shipping brochures, travel-agency catalogues, luggage labels, inflight magazines, and posters. The Museum of Travel and Tourism is building a documentary collection for research, teaching, and future exhibitions. If you own a coherent collection and wish to donate it or place it on long-term loan, tell us about it: we will evaluate the best way forward together. The Museum of Travel and Tourism is an independent digital museum dedicated to the history of travel and tourism. Through the collection, documentation and digitisation of travel heritage, it supports research and makes a largely overlooked cultural heritage freely accessible online.
What we are looking for (priority areas)
- Books & guidebooks: historical guides (e.g., Baedeker and related), tourism monographs, yearbooks.
- Maps & itineraries: tourist maps, city plans, road maps.
- Postcards & photography: used/unused postcards, travel albums, slides/negatives, stereographs.
- Tourism ephemera: brochures, travel-agency catalogues, hotel rate lists, menus, luggage labels, tickets/itineraries, diaries and manuscripts.
- Transport: railway and shipping timetables, airline timetables, route maps, safety cards, inflight magazines, press kits.
- Institutional promotion: materials from tourism boards, fairs, official campaigns.
- Objects related to travel and tourism: suitcases, bicycles, transatlantic liners ;)
- Preferred period: late 19th century to the 1970s; coherent contemporary holdings are also considered.
One of the fundamental functions of any museum institution is the collection and preservation of materials. In the case of the Museum of Travel and Tourism, this mission focuses in particular on the traces left by amateur globetrotters, which are often fragile and fragmented.
This documentation is produced using tools and platforms subject to rapid obsolescence. Travel experiences are frequently documented with great care through blogs, dedicated websites, or social media; however, within a few years, these contents are often discontinued, become difficult to access, or disappear altogether. As in the past, these can be considered “weak traces”, exposed to a high risk of loss.
The museum aims to identify, preserve, and make these materials accessible again - texts, images, and testimonies in different languages - ensuring free access and systematic citation of sources. We are interested not only in the objects themselves, but also in the people who collected and used them. Information about travellers, itineraries, dates and historical context greatly enhances the documentary value of a collection.
Every proposed donation is assessed according to scholarly criteria and its relevance to the museum's mission. Accepted materials are documented, preserved with the greatest care compatible with the nature of the project and, whenever appropriate, digitised and made accessible for research, education and public engagement. The museum acquires collections exclusively through donation or long-term loan and does not purchase collection material.
Should the Museum no longer be able to ensure the long-term preservation of its collections, it will seek, in accordance with the agreement with the donor, an appropriate transfer to another heritage institution.
What we usually do not accept
- Common duplicates without variant/condition value.
- Materials without provenance or in compromised condition (active mold, extensive structural damage).
- Unidentifiable clippings or unauthorized copies.
How it works
- Propose your collection: describe it with a brief list and a few photos. Contact us at
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . - Curatorial assessment: interest, coherence, condition, provenance.
- On-site inspection or shipping (with appropriate packing; pickup may be considered for significant holdings).
- Agreement: donation (transfer of ownership) or long-term loan/deposit, with terms and credit line.
- Preservation & access: cataloguing, possible digitization, and online publication with credit to the donor/collection.
- Unless otherwise requested, the donor or collection name is acknowledged in the credits.