Academic Heritage

During more than 50 years since the establishment of TU/e, we have collected a large body of material that we call the academic heritage of our institution. These include records, images, symbolic objects belonging to official events and more. We also possess an extensive image archive and aim to achieve a broad overview of historically significant materials worthwhile to document, conserve and make visible for the TU/e community.

Surveying TU/e’s heritage

We aim to gain as complete a picture of the academic heritage of TU/e as possible. Within various departments and supporting services surveys have been made of items which may be counted as part of that heritage. If you think you possess any kind of item you think is worthwhile to preserve as part of TU/e's heritage, we always like to hear from you. And if you have any questions, comments or additional information concerning our academic heritage, please contact our academic heritage specialist, Erik Geelen.

TU/e’s image bank

TU/e in Beeld (TU/e in the Picture) is the database in which to search for digital images of life at this university in past and present, both photographs and films. The image bank is updated and expanded regularly. Browse this image bank for a quick and easy search of digital images, historical as well as recent. Series of images on specific topics can be viewed separately (specials).

For current images specifically dedicated to university corporate publications, we also have the TU/e corporate Image bank, a database offered by the Communication Expertise Center.

About the analog academic heritage collection

Besides our digital image bank, we also still possess an extensive analog image collection dating from the earlier decades of TU/e history. There is a collection of some 10,000 photographs in print. These include prints of photographs from the foundation period of TU/e made by well-known photographers like Ad van Beurden, Martien Coppens and Frans van Mierlo. The collection of negatives, made mainly by the former TU/e photographic service, comprises approx. 100,000-120,000 images. In late 2020 Bram Saeys, photographer with the TU/e weekly journal Cursor mainly during the 1990s and early 2000s, transferred his archive of TU/e work to us. This significant addition to the collection is still in the process of selection and partial digitization.

Collections from TU/e departments and services

Through the years, we have made surveys within departments and supporting services of TU/e of objects and memorabilia that are worthwhile to keep from a historical perspective. Images of most of these objects with descriptions may also be found in ‘TU/e in the Picture’ as special photographic selections. An estimated 300-400 objects of many different kinds have been traced.

TU/encyclopedie

An interesting resource of information (in Dutch) on the history of Eindhoven University of Technology is the TU/encyclopedie. The editors invite students, (former) staff and alumni to contribute their recollections, anecdotes, photographs etc. to further enrich and enliven the content of the TU/encyclopedie.

Using the Academic Heritage Collection

Students and employees of TU/e, and users from outside the university as well, regularly make requests to use items from the academic heritage collection. Examples are journalists from university journals who use photographs to illustrate their articles, students who ask historic photographs to include them in their papers or theses, and authors of publications about university or regional history, or the history of technology in general. During many commemorations of the foundation of TU/e, special exhibitions were organized in which items from the heritage collection were displayed. The academic heritage collection of TU/e provides useful sources of information about the development of our university in past and present.

Take a walk through TU/e history

If you as member of the TU/e community (student or employee) would like to learn some more about the history of our university, and would like to do so while taking a relaxed walk, a historic campus walk could be a good idea. During such a walk, academic heritage specialist Erik Geelen tells you how the Netherlands' second university of technology came to be founded at Eindhoven, about the early history of the campus and the buildings, and some works of art. The next walks are planned for Tuesday 10 September and Thursday 26 September. A historic walk takes approximately an hour, and starts off at 12.00 h. from the Market Square at the entrance to MetaForum. Explanation is in English or Dutch, and can be given in both languages if desired. If you'd like to join on one of these walks, you can send an e-mail to Erik Geelen, mentioning the date on which you would like to join. If you and several others from TU/e would like to make the walk as a group, you can contact Erik Geelen and arrange a special date for your group walk. The aim is to limit size of walking groups to a maximum of 10-12 persons. Read more about the campus walks in this article, published some time ago in Cursor.