About
Project Overview
"Coffee, Cigar & Tea: The Ephemera Reclamation of Dutch East Indies Trade Goods" is a digital collection that documents Indonesia's commercial art evolution through historical trade labels for coffee, cigars, and tea. These ephemeral artifacts serve as vital historical records that showcase the country's cultural transformation from Dutch colony to independent nation, revealing changing power dynamics through visual design elements.
This collection emerged from academic research on metadata and structured vocabularies, with a focus on developing frameworks that support community-based collections while ensuring proper documentation standards. The project applies decolonial practices to challenge how colonial commercial materials are traditionally described and categorized, revealing colonial contexts previously obscured in existing collections.
Collection Focus
The collection focuses on commercial ephemera—primarily product labels, advertisements, and packaging—related to three key commodities from the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia):
Colonial and post-independence coffee labels showcasing the visual evolution of Indonesian coffee branding.
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Indonesian kretek (clove cigarette) labels reflecting unique cultural aspects and changing artistic styles.
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Tea packaging designs revealing the transformation of visual aesthetics from colonial to independent Indonesia.
View CollectionBy concentrating on Van Nelle's products (a major colonial plantation operator), the collection maintains a manageable scope while providing sufficient material for meaningful analysis of colonial visual culture and its transformation.
The Purpose Behind
The creation of this digital collection addresses several critical gaps in current archival practices:
- Digital Accessibility: By digitizing these fragile physical materials, we enable broader access for researchers, educators, and community members who would otherwise have limited opportunity to study these artifacts.
- Decolonial Perspective: Existing colonial archives typically present materials from European viewpoints. This collection intentionally centers Indonesian perspectives, creating space for alternative narratives and indigenous knowledge systems.
- Bridging Institutional Divides: Materials related to Dutch East Indies trade are currently scattered across Dutch and Indonesian institutions with little cross-referencing. This collection brings together complementary resources to enable more comprehensive analysis.
- Supporting Local Initiatives: By partnering with Grafis Nusantara, this project contributes to strengthening Indonesia's developing digital cultural heritage infrastructure at a critical time in its evolution.