Links
- Schedule a visit (for the Technion community)
- Schedule a visit (for guests)
- Scanned Documents
- Contact: Itay.k@technion.ac.il | 073-378-1783
The Technion historical archive provides complete documentation of the development of technology education in Israel from the end of the 19th century, including the history of the Technikum and of the Technion.
Today the archive contains over 50,000 items and 250,000 papers that include rare collections of photographs, books, sketches, documents, educational booklets and journals.
The archival collection is stored at optimal temperature and humidity. The items are stored in special anti-acid folders and in other appropriate containers.
The “Archive Network Israel project” was created to collect and preserve rare and important items relating to the establishment and history of the modern State of Israel and making them accessible digitally to the public.
“Mosaic of identities” project for accessing materials in the Nessyahu Historical Archive by digitization and interactability
The Archive Collection
Time period- from the beginning of the 20th century when the idea of establishing a Jewish technical university was raised, through the “language wars”, the establishment of the Technion, WW I and WW II, up to the 1980’s.
Historical picture and photograph collection -from the Technion’s first years to the 1970’s
The Alexander Baerwald Collection (a partial bequest):
Alexander Baerwald, 1878-1930, a Jewish-German architect and artist, was among the pioneers of modern Israeli eclectic architecture. He designed the original Technion building, The Reali School and various public buildings in Hadar, Haifa. He was among those who established the Technion Faculty of Architecture and was the head of the Faculty from 1925-1929. The collection includes plans for Technion buildings in Hadar, Haifa, The Reali School, houses in Haifa, synagogues and schools throughout the country, a power station, public buildings in the country, pictures of Baerwald and some of the projects he undertook while still in Germany.
An oil painting on canvas painted by the artist Leonid Pasternak in 1925.
This painting is one of a series of portraits painted by the Jewish-Russian artist Leonid Pasternak (1862-1945) in the 1920’s and 1930’s. The subjects include famous, Jewish scientists and humanists.
Leonid Pasternak presented the painting to Baerwald. Baerwald died in 1930 and in 1942 part of his estate was bequeathed to the Technion.
The painting hangs in the Technion Central Library (on the Technion campus), in the Nessyahu Archive, in optimal climate conditions.
The Collection of Prof. Yohanan Ratner’s Military Plans:
Yohanan Ratner, 1891-1965, was an architect and a professor of architecture in the Technion. The archive includes the collection of his military plans from the 1930’s for the defense of the Jewish settlements in pre-state Israel.
Ratner was active in the Haganah and helped to set up the Palmach. He served in the British army during WW II. Just before Israel’s independence he became a member of the Haganah High Command.
The Gottlieb Schumacher Collection of Maps:
Gottlieb Schumacher, 1857-1925, was a civil engineer, an architect and an archeologist. He was an American of German descent. In the 1860’s he came to Israel and settled in the Templar community in Haifa. He made his mark as a significant map-maker and archeologist in the Land of Israel and neighboring countries.
The Schumacher Collection includes maps of Haifa that Schumacher drew in 1896-1911, 58 maps of the Land of Israel (Palestina) and neighboring countries, maps of the Golan and the Hermon and maps drawn by Schumacher and others of Israeli archeological sites like Megiddo, Sebastia and Tabha.
Scheduling a Visit
Visitors must contact the archive curator in advance:
