Current projects at the Prints and Drawings Department

The Prints and Drawings Department uses a project-based approach to work on particularly extensive and complex collections and archives. The department is also currently involved in collaborative projects with partner institutions that are aimed at cataloguing, studying and publicising specific holdings in depth. Here you can find out more about our current projects.

«Portrait Suisse»

The image shows a member of staff working with graphic portraits.

This project aims to provide high-quality cataloguing and digitisation of the Graphic Portraits collection, which comprises around 15,000 sheets, along with the subsequent publication of the digitised images. The collection includes individual and group portraits of Swiss figures from society, politics, the military, science, literature and the arts. Self-portraits by male and female artists are a further focus of the collection.

  • Funding: Graphica Helvetica Foundation
  • Duration: January 2026 – December 2028

Artists’ prints and drawings

This project aims to make the Swiss National Library’s outstanding collection of original graphic art fully accessible for the first time. It involves consolidating the modern and contemporary graphic holdings within the Prints and Drawings Department, along with conserving and cataloguing them. Comprising around 16,000 sheets, the holdings include not only printed works (single sheets, series of sheets and portfolios) but also numerous drawings, collages and papercuts.

  • Funding: National Library’s own resources
  • Duration: January 2024 – June 2030

Research and Access

Both collections are described and catalogued in detail in the HelveticArchives database. Parts of collections that have already been completed are being made available online step by step.

Further information about the collections and details about unpublished holdings is available on request.

Originals can be consulted on site (by appointment).

AI-Assisted Poster Cataloguing

The National Library is cataloguing its poster collection using semi-automated image analysis. The aim is to use the analysis to generate a bibliographic description structured according to predefined rules.

  • Funding: Swiss National Library
  • Duration: 2023 – 2027

Digital Edition of Gabriel Mathias Lory’s Order and Address Book

The image shows a screen where work is being done on the digital edition of the original address and order book of Gabriel Mathias Lory, which is lying on the table next to the screen.

This project centers on creating a digital edition and scholarly contextualisation of the address and order book of the Bernese Kleinmeister Gabriel Mathias Lory (1784–1846). The aim is to make this important source material more readily accessible for historical and art historical research. The project is being carried out as a collaboration between the National Library, the Digital Humanities Center and the Institute of Art History at the University of Bern.

  • Funding: Graphica Helvetica Foundation
  • Duration: 2026 – 2029

Critical Catalogue for Caspar Wolf

The Prints and Drawings Department is working on a publicly accessible online database containing the critical catalogue of all prints by and based on Caspar Wolf (1735–1783). The department is also providing images and texts for the accompanying print publication.

  • Duration: 2025 – 2027

Swiss National Library

Prints and Drawings Department
Hallwylstrasse 15
3003 Bern