Many handwritten and illustrated archives contain a wealth of information, but are largely underexplored because they are complex and difficult for computers to decipher. The aim of this project is to develop a digital environment that resolves this challenge and connects heterogeneous archival content to other digital sources. Within this four-year project (2016-2020), data scientists from Leiden (LIACS) and Groningen (ALICE), heritage professionals from Naturalis Biodiversity Center, historians of science from the University of Twente (STePS) and Brill publishers, work closely together. Our research is financed by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) and Brill.