Helen Herbert (honorable mention, 2023)
For the Hélène Nolthenius Prize 2023, the jury assessed six submitted theses. According to the jury, two theses stood out. That is why the jury has proposed not only to designate a winner this year, but also an honorable mention. This one was for Helen Hebert.
The jury was struck by the original approach, bold approach and practical relevance of Helen Herbert's thesis: 'Josquin in Black and White: Materiality in Early Twentieth-Century Photographs of Historical Music Sources at Utrecht University's Josquin Archive' (supervised by Ruxandra Marinescu of Utrecht University).
This thesis receives a special honourable mention for the original, interdisciplinary, accurate, critical and relevant analysis of management and conservation issues surrounding the historical photographic collection of Albert Smijers, which he built up during his research into Josquin's manuscripts at the beginning of the twentieth century. Herbert describes the creation of the extensive collection of ten thousand photographs from old sources and then addresses a series of questions about the management and preservation of the photographs and the digitisation of the collection. Her discussion on materiality and digitalisation is very topical and relevant, also in a broader context. The jury considers this to be required reading for the managers of musical photo collections and sheet music collections.
The jury of the Hélène Nolthenius Prize 2023 consisted of Dr. Hannah Bosma, Dr. Rutger Helmers and Dr. Philomeen Lelieveldt.
