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Arcadia

Arcadia serves humanity by preserving endangered cultural heritage and ecosystems.

We protect complexity and work against the entropy of ravaged and thereby starkly simplified natural environments and globalized cultures. Innovation and change occur best in already complex systems. Once memories, knowledge, skills, variety, and intricacy disappear – once the old complexities are lost – they are hard to replicate or replace. Arcadia aims to return to people both their memories and their natural surroundings. What we want to preserve remains fragile, small and dispersed. But if we do not protect it – if it vanishes forever – then future generations will have no base from which to build a vibrant, resilient, green future.

Because knowledge should belong to all, we also promote open access, seeking to make information available without barriers of cost or distance. Charities, businesses, universities, schools, the media, politicians, and citizens all benefit when research and data are no longer locked behind paywalls or reserved for those who live near their repositories. The economy benefits too from better-informed decisions, improved schooling and knowledgeable citizens, from enhanced academic research and innovation based on shared knowledge.

We do not accept applications, but seek and support organizations run by exceptional individuals, operating in a cost-effective, scientifically sound, and ethical manner that share our vision.

Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin

Funder Website

Arcadia Projects

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Preservation and digitization of Zoroastrian historical documents and Avestan manuscripts

After a major migration to India, the Zoroastrian community is a minority in Iran. Documents of the community are spread and sometimes forgotten in private collections. After …

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Digitisation of Wills, Deed Books and Powers of Attorney for St Vincent, 1785-1865

In the 18th and 19th Century, the islands of St Vincent and the Grenadines produced large amounts of coffee and sugar, which enriched British imperial coffers. The digitisatio…

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Eap 1005

Continuing the Digitisation of the Endangered Cham Manuscripts in Vietnam

The Champa kingdom lasted from the 7th Century to 1832, when it became part of Vietnam. Today, there are only 160,000 Cham people. Although their unique culture can still be s…

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Preserving Endangered Manuscript Libraries in Djerba, Tunisia: the al-Basi Family Library Project

The El Basi mosque housed a collection of 200 bound volumes, used by students and scholars since the late 18th century. After the mosque was shut down in the early 20th Centur…

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Eap 990

Complex archeographic research of old believers communities in Kostroma region: search, digitization and archiving of early Cyrillic books and manuscripts

The Cyrillic books and manuscripts of Old Believers in the Kostroma region capture tradition and spiritual culture of the Russian Middle Ages and Modern Time. The digitisation…

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Three Precious Cultural Manuscript Collections from the 19th century facing disappearance

The Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic Museum, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences holds one of the earliest archives in Southern Europe. It collects hand…

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Documentation and Preservation of Bima Manuscript

The Kingdom of Bima was one of the maritime kingdoms of the Indonesian archipelago. The trace of the kingdom’s history and culture can be found in historical objects and in ma…

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Preservation of the manuscripts of the Jaffna Bishop's house

The documents held at the Jaffna Bishop’s House are unique testimonies of the social and cultural history of the people of Jaffna and of the Christian missions in the pre-inde…

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EAP971

Jaffna Protestant Digital Archive

The Tamil Protestant community of the Jaffna peninsula has left an indelible mark on Sri Lanka’s modern history. These sources contribute to how we understand ritual, textual,…

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