dence of both professions the congress would be divided into separate,
autonomous sections: one for librarians and one for archivists, each with its
own president.
Although archivists constituted a minority -only a third of the more than
500 participants- the librarians did not dominate the congress. Twenty-three
out of the fifty-nine reports which had been especially written for the congress
dealt with archival subjects. Among them figured topics like legislation,
construction of strongrooms, conservation and restoration problems, the
preparation of inventories and, of course, the favourite subject of Cuvelier
himself, the professional education of archivists.
Long discussions were devoted to the twelve-year-old Dutch Manual for the
Arrangement and Description of Archives6, a French edition of which had been
completed recently by Joseph Cuvelier and the French archivist Henry Stein.
The principle of provenance, which was the bearing concept of the Manual, was
proclaimed by the congress to be the basic rule of the profession.
Although archival and library societies "of all countries" had been invited to
participate,7 only a small part of the world was represented at this first inter
national professional meeting. In the absence of professionally kept archives, let
alone associations of professional archivists in most countries of the world, the
archival community was mainly confined to Europe. Nevertheless twenty-three
nationalities, including Canada, Russia and the United States of America, were
represented at the congress.
The Proceedings of the Brussels Congress, an impressive volume containing
more than eight hundred pages, reflects the success of this first international
meeting of professional archivists. During the sessions which were mainly being
held in the Palais des Fêtes et de Congrès of the Brussels World Fair, a general
feeling of self-confidence and triumph prevailed. Given that atmosphere is was
not surprising that the chairman of the archival section Samuel Muller, one of
the authors of the Dutch Manual and in his daily life combining the jobs of a
state and municipal archivist in the city of Utrecht, stated at the end of the
meeting: "Le congrès de Bruxelles devrait être le premier d'une série de réunions
similaires, au cours des quelles on chercherait a trouver une solution a toutes les
questions d'un intérêt international."8 In order to achieve this goal Muller
proposed the founding of a Permanent Commission which would be responsible
for the execution of the resolutions of the congress and the preparation of the
next meeting, to be held in at least three, but at most five, years.9
The outbreak of the First World War prevented the realisation of these
solemnly proclaimed and broadly supported intentions. A second congress,
which, according to the plans of the Commission Permanente des Congrès inter
national des Archivistes et des Bibliothécaires, of which Muller was a member,
should have met in Milan in 1915, could not take place.
For many people, in particular intellectuals, the war meant an unexpected
relapse into a former stage of history, in full contradiction to the sense of
optimism with which the century had begun, and added to the usual horrors of
war the shock of seeing senseless destruction of the cultural heritage. For
example, the famous library of the University of Louvain lost in a devastating
fire 230,000 volumes, 750 medieval manuscripts and over 1,000 incunabula.10
The wartime losses aroused among archivists awareness of the vulnerability
of their holdings. Yet, archival co-operation in order to find solutions to this and
other problems were not at the top of the agenda in the destroyed and
demoralised belligerent countries where rebuilding was the main concern for
several years to come.
This does not imply that the Permanent Commission was sitting around
doing nothing. After the librarians resolved to organise a congress of their
own,11 the secretary of the archivists committee, G. des Marez, pressed on with
the preparation of an international congress of archivists too. Although des
Marez, municipal archivist of Brussels and vice-president of the organising
committee of the 1910 congress, was a very influential person on account of his
international relations during the interbellum, he lacked the backing needed for
the organisation of a big event like an international congress. As time passed
by his chances of being successful diminished with the gradual thinning out of
the Permanent Commission.
Looking back at the Brussels Congress one is surprised by many familiar
features: thoroughly prepared reports and interventions, strictly delimited spe
aking times, even the subjects sound well-known to us. Another familiar trait
can be found in the fact that in Brussels too an important part of the program
me was intended to encourage personal contacts between the participants from
various countries. Cocktail-hours and banquets, visits to archives, museums,
palaces, and, of course, to the wonderland of the World Fair pavilions offered
ample possibilities for informal intercourse.
The Brussels Congress was very successful and the Belgians still deserve to be
credited with this feat. The echoes of the first congress on archives sound all the
way through the interbellum. According to the closing words of the meeting,
recorded in the Proceedings, the first result was the bringing together of various
professional associations and the establishing of friendship between their
members. In 1910 personal contacts were regarded as crucial for the develop
ment of international co-operation. In this way the Brussels Congress struck a
chord which would last until today.
As much as four decades went by before the next international congress of
archivists was held. During the intervening years, which were marked by two
world wars, economic crisis and the rise of totalitarianism, occasional efforts
were made to encourage international archival co-operation. As a matter of fact,
they remained restricted to Europe and North America.
Apart from the Permanent Commission which was responsible for the orga
nisation of subsequent congresses, two international archival structures were set
up, the membership of which partly overlapped: The Archives Commission of the
Comité International des Sciences Historiques and The Committee of Expert
Archivists of the League of Nations.
DE PROFESSIE
6 See note 1.
7 Nederlandsch Archievenblad (NAB) 16 (1907-1908), p. 158.
8 Actes, pp. 773-775.
9 Ibid., p. 801.
154
JAN VAN DEN BROEK FROM BRUSSELS TO BEIJING
10 Lawrence D. Gelier, "Joseph Cuvelier, Belgian Archival Education and the First International Congress
of Archivists, Brussels 1910", Archivaria 16 (1983), pp. 26-34. Here: p. 27.
11 The first congress of librarians to be held after the joint Brussels congress took place in Rome in 1930.
H.O. Meisner, "Internationale Archivorganisationen", Archivalische Zeitschrift 3. Folge, viii. Band (1932),
pp. 282-289. Here: p. 282.
155
