The Iselin family archive, Basel
Locating Isaak Iselin
By telephone, you get an appointment in the Iselin family archive, which is located near Basel Minster. The material, including a library, is kept in the storage rooms of the family house.
Isaak Iselin's historical record exists here in the context of other members of his family. The portraits, documents, books and memorabilia form a memory landscape. This site also reveals that Isaak Iselin and his historical output are part of a larger family consciousness and form a lieu de mémoire. The parts of the archives represented by the bequests of other family members thus overlap and are entangled with each other. One wonders, for example, how Die Geschichte der Menschheit by the earlier Isaak Iselin, a book which reflected on indigenous peoples, may have influenced Iselin during his travels.