Accessibility and Archives: Images of Disability: Digitising The Hans Würtz Collection

Professor Simon Mckeown undertakes research and teaches at the School of Arts and Creative Industries at Teesside University, Middlesbrough, UK in the fields of fine art, digital creativity and disability. He is a disabled practicing artist as well as a disability heritage specialist. In the second part of his blog, he shares what the Project has been doing to make the Hans Würtz Collection searchable and accessible.

At the 2013 exhibition Disabled by Normality[1] (DOX Centre for Contemporary Art, Prague, CZ) which had included items from the Hans Würtz collection, I exhibited my work Motion Disabled[2] in what became one of Europe’s largest and most impactful shows on disability and art. The Disabled by Normality exhibition featured both historical and contemporary works by Czech and international disabled artists, but I had no idea this would spark over a decade of creative work and international collaboration.

As the scope of the Hans Würtz collection became clear, DOX suggested I contact Professor Oliver Musenberg, who had completed his PhD on the collection’s original owner. We met in Berlin in 2014 and have since worked together to bring this remarkable collection back into public view.

Simon McKeon and Oliver Musenberg

A central question in our project was how to revitalise creative disability research. The Collection features prominent depictions of beggars, notably in the work of Pieter Brueghel the Elder, one of the Northern Renaissance’s most iconic artists. As part of the project, I developed a new interpretation of his painting The Beggars[3]. As recently as 2020, the Louvre described this work as “a pitiless depiction of human degradation”—a deeply offensive characterisation. Through a close reading of the painting, and by drawing on knowledge of medieval disability[4] and prosthetics, I propose an alternative interpretation—one that contributes to a revitalised disabled identity and reimagines historical representations of disability.

The first stage of our project involved establishing partnerships, particularly with our Czech colleagues, who are custodians of most of the Hans Würtz Collection. Funding was our next challenge. Though our initial EU application was unsuccessful, it laid vital groundwork. In 2021, during Covid, we secured funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the German Research Foundation for our project Images of Disability[5].

The Collection, largely untouched and in analogue form, had never been studied. We asked whether it could be digitised in a timely, cost-effective way to enable analysis. This led to the creation of a WordPress database, supported by 2D/3D scanning and backup protocols. With this infrastructure, we could catalogue and develop visual and material categorisations of what is a uniquely figurative archive.

We continue to research the artworks and have come to understand that the Collection reveals how representations of disabled people were once prevalent in art and culture. We are developing a new ontological perspective that uncovers the Collection’s rich and complex depictions of impairment—from dwarfism in ancient pottery to stereotypical portrayals of beggars and disabled deities. These materials will enable culturally sensitive, socially grounded interpretations.

Once the core work was complete, we examined how impairment and disability were represented—and staged—throughout the Collection, both across the assemblage and through close study of selected key items. These investigations informed our metadata. With the Collection digitised, we could begin broader evaluations to generate new insights and knowledge. To keep the work manageable, we focused on a ‘Top 500’—reducing redundancies such as the many near-identical prints of Napoleon. We now know, for example, that sixty-eight musicians are represented. We've mapped depictions of work, gender, caricature, and identified around seventy key themes and sixty-eight impairments, with missing limbs and dwarfism frequently depicted.  We now understand how the Collection has evolved over time and what its status is. This has led us to speculate on the almost 4000 items that have been lost. There are a lot of 2D works in the Collection and many of these are copies, and even copies of copies – of prints, drawings, 3D objects as well as newspaper cuttings. Were these copies of original items held in the Collection that have since been lost to it? Does this explain why the Collection has so many copies and is missing so many items? Unfortunately, Würtz kept no provenance records, hindering art historical analysis. We also struggled to trace the role of Würtz’s wife, Rosa. Although she was clearly involved—possibly as a financial supporter—much remains unexplored, and future research beyond our project’s scope is needed here.

This project responds to several pressing needs: to open a closed collection at a moment of heightened political relevance; to support museum professionals in recognising problematic portrayals of disability; and to reinterpret these works through rights-based, participatory, and embodiment-focused frameworks—building on the Collection’s historical knowledge to shape inclusive cultural narratives.

Humbolt Forum event banner illustration

As of this writing, the Hans Würtz Collection has featured in only three exhibitions. The first was in 1932, during its initial assembly; the second at DOX; and the third at Germany’s most visited museum, the Humboldt Forum[6] in central Berlin—a symbolic return to the city from which it was exiled nearly 90 years ago[7]. The Collection compels critical reflection on the power dynamics of visual representation and archival practice in relation to disability history.

[1] DOX (2013) https://www.dox.cz/en/whats-on/disabled-by-normality

[2] Simon Mckeown (2009)  https://www.motiondisabled.com/

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beggars

[4] Metzler, I (2005) “Disability in Medieval Europe”

[5] www.imagesofdisability.org

[6] “The Humboldt Forum is taking shape in the historical heart of Berlin as a unique place of inquiry and encounters. A place with a significant past. A place for the arts and sciences, for exchange, diversity and a multiplicity of voices. A place where differences come together”.  With 1.7 million visitors in 2023, it is the most visited museum in Germany and the 34th most visited museum in the world. (Wikipedia).

[7] https://www.humboldtforum.org/en/programm/laufzeitangebot/installation-en/bilder-von-behinderung-143542/