The O.F. Gollcher archives are to be digitalised following an agreement reached between the Palazzo Falson Historic House Museum, the O.F. G. Art and Archaeological Foundation, Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti and the Hill Museum and Manuscript Library (HMML) of St John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota, the US, to digitise the O.F. Gollcher archives.

The archives consist of library and historic documents which form an important part of the Palazzo Falson collection. An online catalogue documenting these collections will be made available so that detailed information about the palazzo’s collections on paper are freely accessible to researchers worldwide.

Freely accessible to researchers

The digitisation project is funded in part by a generous grant from the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation. Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti is also negotiating a permanent collaboration with HMML to create a centre for the study of Maltese private archives.

The foundation will partner with private individuals to digitise historic private archives located in Malta. These archives are not accessible or catalogued and their future is, therefore, uncertain.

By having them digitised, another important part of Malta’s patrimony will be preserved and made accessible through Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti, Palazzo Falson and HMML.

To mark this historic agreement, a lecture was organised at Palazzo Falson for researchers and owners of private archives to see how HMML can assist them in digitising their archives for posterity. The lecture, titled 'The Malta Study Centre: Forty Years of Preservation and Research’, was delivered by Daniel K. Gullo.

During the lecture, Gullo discussed the history of HMML and the role the Malta Study Centre has played in the preservation of manuscript culture. Gullo is curator at the Malta Study Centre, which forms part of the HMML.