Holstebro archive publishes 11,000 portraits and asks public to identify subjects

A local history archive in Holstebro has published 11,000 digitised portraits and is asking the public to help identify the people pictured. DR reports that the photographs were taken at an atelier in the town between 1922 and 1963.

The Holstebro Local History Archive has a list of people who commissioned portraits, but they may not be the people shown in the photographs. The archive believes more than 100,000 descendants of those pictured could help add names and information. Archive director Stig Asbjørn Vestergaard urged people to browse the images on arkiv.dk.

The collection contains 40,000 portraits, making the 11,000 images the first batch to be digitised. The archive expects to publish the rest in the coming years. Volunteers have been scanning the numbered negatives and recording the commissioners’ names since last year. The project is expected to be completed in 2028.

The portraits include couples, families and groups from across society, as well as some people photographed with pets. The atelier, located at Danmarksgade 8, was founded by photographer Søren Busk in 1893 and had several owners before it closed in 1963.

The archive says the material used for the negatives is unstable and deteriorates over time. Thousands of negatives had to be discarded in 2014 because of their poor condition, although 6,500 were digitised to preserve the images.