Europe at Work - the story so far

Sharing stories at Collection Days 

At six Europe at Work Collection Days across Europe, people have shared their stories and material relating to their working lives. 

So far, events have taken place in:

• Luxembourg with partners Centre de Documentation sur le Migration Humaine and Instituto de História Contemporânea, Universidade Nova de Lisboa

• Saint-Claude, France, with partners Amsab Institute for Social History

• Rome, Italy, with partners Associazione culturale GoTellGo

• Fiskars, Finland, with partners Fiskars Museum and National Library of Finland

• Hamburg, Germany, with partners Museum der Arbeit and Stiftung Historische Museen Hamburg

• Dublin, Ireland, with partners EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum

More than 300 people have come along to the collection days and related events, with around 130 working life stories shared so far. We’re working hard to publish these now, with some already online. From shopkeepers to firefighters, discover the stories so far on Europeana Collections.

Storytelling with Europeana editorials

Europeana Collections’s new Industrial Heritage collection brings together just over 440,000 digital cultural heritage records from 739 cultural heritage institutions in 36 countries.

671 cultural heritage objects from 181 CHIs in 32 countries are curated in 16 galleries - including ones on Telephones through time, Mining and miners, and Women at work - and 20 blogs, the most popular so far being Centenary celebrations: eight firms that are 100 years old in 2019, ‘A woman’s work is never done’: women’s working history in Europe and The Flying Dutchmen: 100 years of KLM.

That’s a lot of galleries and blogs and is a result of contributions from a range of partner organisations, including aggregators and cultural heritage institutions across Europe, and in particular, those in the Europeana Common Culture project.

We’d like to thank everyone who has contributed so far and we’re looking forward to even more before the season ends.

Getting animated with GIF IT UP

Throughout October, GIF IT UP 2019 encouraged people to create new, fun, and unique gif artworks from digitised cultural heritage materials.  A special Europe at Work prize category invited people to create gifs inspired by industrial heritage. Over 180 entries were received in total, and the winner of the industrial heritage category - as voted for by the GIF IT UP jury - will receive a Stirling engine model and steampunk glasses.

Coming up

If you’re in Helsinki, Varkaus, Lisbon, Amsterdam or Kivik before the end of the year, come along to the Europe at Work collection days there. More event details. 

Keep an eye on Europeana Collections, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for more galleries and blogs. Tell us what you like on social media or in the blog comments and share, share, share!

Also - if you’re looking for a stocking filler or a workplace Secret Santa gift - don’t miss the Europe at Work colouring book coming out in early December.