About the Collection
The Herbert Hufnagel Collection
The Collector: Herbert Hufnagel
Herbert Hufnagel, grandfather of the current owner, assembled this unique collection of historical transport documents over several decades. Additional biographical information will be added shortly.
The Collection
The collection comprises over 200 historical transport documents dating from 1396 to 1899. It documents five centuries of European trade and transport history and includes carrier's letters, freight bills, bills of lading, customs documents, and many other document types from over 10 countries.
FERPHILEX '85
Parts of the collection were exhibited at FERPHILEX '85 in Nuremberg, a renowned philatelic exhibition. The collection title page from this exhibition is also part of the digitised holdings.
Digitisation
All documents have been digitised in high resolution. For most documents, detailed analyses have been produced using AI-assisted handwriting recognition and historical context analysis. These accompanying analyses include transcriptions, historical contextualisation, and commentary on each document.