The first attempt was undertaken not by archivists but by the Comité Inter
national des Sciences Historiques (CISH). The initiative to the founding of this
committee being taken by the United States, it was established in 1928 in
Washington with financial backing of the American Historical Association and
professional support of the indefatigable des Marez.
Actually, the CISH was the independent successor of a bureau which since
1900 organised a series of congresses for historians. Its objective was to further
historical research in the broadest sense of the word. From the point of view of
the CISH archival science had no substance of its own. It was regarded as an
auxiliary science for the historian.12 This view was in strong contrast with the
spirit of the Brussels Congress, where so triumphantly a common profession had
been celebrated.
In relation to archives the main concern of CISH was to provide historians
with the documents they needed and, consequently, to further access to
archives. To this end in 1929 as ninth and last expert group within CISH a
Commission of Archives was established under the presidency of G. des Marez.
The Commission consisted of archivists and historians from European
countries, including Russia, and the United States of America.
The Commission of Archives stressed the vital importance of archives for
historical research in general and, complying with the interests of the newly
emerging schools of social and economic history, called for measures to ensure
the preservation and accessibility of archives of big economic agents like ship
ping companies.
On the commission's agenda figured also an international congress of
archivists, but this issue never received a high priority. Information on the use of
archives in Europe was assembled by means of an inquiry which turned out to
provoke so many positive responses that subsequently questionnaires were sent
to countries in other continents as well. So data were received from Brazil, Chile,
Uruguay, Venezuela and the Union of South-Africa.
By 1931, after des Marez had died, old Joseph Cuvelier was the only founding
father of the 1910 Brussels Congress alive. For a while the work of the
Commission of Archives came to a halt. Des Marez's successor as president,
Robert Fruin, one of the co-authors of the Dutch Manual of 1898, could not
restore to the commission its old energy. The work of the commission depended
to heavily on the driving power of single-handed acting individuals.
From 1931 onwards the president and secretary of the CISH Commission of
Archives took part in meetings of a second international structure for archivists.
I am talking here about the Committee of Expert Archivists, the by then recently
founded archives section of the League of Nations.
Unlike the Archives Commission of CISH the Committé of Expert Archivists
did not originate from the world of professionals, but was initiated top down.
The League of Nations' main objective being the strengthening of international
co-operation, it was this supranational organisation that set up a structure for
international intellectual co-operation: the Comité International de Cooperation
Intellectuelle (CICI). Within the framework of this institution, which can be
regarded as a predecessor of Unesco, a subcommission was established for inter
national co-operation in the field of archives: the Committee of Expert
Archivists.
Since its start in the mid-twenties CICI worked through its executive organ,
the Institut International de Coopération Intellectuelle (IICI), domiciliated in the
capital of its main donor, France, in the Paris Palais Royal. The institute main
tained relations with universities in the member states, organised the exchange
of professors, assigned scholarships. National Commissions for Intellectual
Co-operation were in charge of initiating IICI work and of co-ordinating cultural
activities in their home countries. The first time IICI showed an interest in
archival matters was in 1927.
That year the national commissions received a questionnaire from the
Institute in Paris concerning the conservation of documents and manuscripts.
At that time the quality of ink, paper and what was called "the triumphal march
of the type-writer" started to cause some anxiety.13 In order to discuss the results
of the inquiry and to study the problem of preservation of manuscripts and prin
ting, in January 1928 a commission was appointed, consisting of three techni
cians, four historians and a specialist in the conservation of printed matter. This
"paper ink commission", chaired by Robert Fruin, confined itself strictly to its
technical task and did not show any interest in widening its sphere of activity or
in stimulating co-operation in a broader sense.
It was the German National Commission for Intellectual Co-operation
which in 1930 put archival matters higher on the agenda of CICI. Following a
proposition of this commission CICI decided to convene a group of expert
archivists en vue de lui demander un avis autorisé sur les problèmes interna-
tionaux se référant aux archives et les moyens propres a en assurer la solution".14
This preparatory committee met for the first time in April 1931. Delegates
from Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Poland, Spain and
Switzerland were convened at the IICI headquarters in Paris. The United States of
America, not being a member of the League of Nations, was represented by a
delegate from the Library of Congress. This group, chaired by the British
DE PROFESSIE
2.2 The Archives Commission of the Comité International des
Sciences Historiques
12 The secretary general of CISH expressed this opinion in a letter to R. Fruin, August 18, 1930: "We are not
concerned with archival organisation or administration". Algemeen Rijksarchief 's-Gravenhage (ARA),
ARA 2.14.03, inv. nr. 821.
156
JAN VAN DEN BROEK FROM BRUSSELS TO BEIJING
2.3 The Committee of Expert Archivists of the League of Nations
Meisner, p. 288.
14 ARA 2.14.03, inv. nr. 820: IICI, "proces verbaux provisoires" of the reunion of expert archivists in Paris,
April 2-3, 1931.
157
