The Iselin family archive, Basel

The Ramsteinerhof in Basel contains the private archive of the Iselin family.
Picture by David Hänggi–Aragai.

The aim of this archival exercise is to familiarize you with the concept of a private archive. Often, historical materials are to be found not only in public archives and libraries, but also in private collections. In most cases, private archives are not publicly accessible and have no internet domain. Finding them can thus be complicated and time–consuming.

This exercise is created as a virtual tour of the Iselin family archive in Basel. Your task is to locate material about the merchant Isaak Iselin–Roulet (1783–1841) and his sojourn in Hawaiʻi in 1807.