fessionals throughout the world inviting them to give their suggestions and advice, "so that there may be assembled a body of information and opinion that will be useful in determining what kind of organization is desirable and what shall be the steps to be taken to bring it into being."26 Despite problems caused by the fact that much of the information in the 1934 directory of archival institutions was outdated, a mailing-list was drawn up and over one hundred prominent archivists all over the world received the letter.27 Eventually half of the addressees responded, although many of the responses came in with considerable delay, due to language or terminology problems, political and competence complications.28 Answering the first question of the questionnaire the archivists showed a remarkable unanimity: everyone agreed on the necessity of an international archives organisation. This unison was missing, however, in the replies to the questions about the preferred basis of represen tation and the issue of membership. Should members be organisations, institu tions, professional archival associations, individuals, or should a combination be favourable? Undeterred by the obviously lurking disagreements Unesco at its General Conference in Mexico (November 1947) upheld its earlier decision to encourage the establishing of an international archival organisation and assigned the modest sum of 4,000 in order to convene a group of prominent archivists which should be entrusted with the preparation of a concrete plan. An exclusively US-made preliminary constitution29 was discussed at a meeting which was held in June 1948 in the Unesco headquarters in Paris, where delegates from Czechoslovakia, France, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, the United Kingdom and the United States met with Unesco representatives.30 The American draft constitution suggested that all archival institutions, associations and organisations should be entitled to become members of the new organisation and have the right to vote. Individuals should have a voice but no vote. As expected, opinions differed on this vital point. The majority of the conference wanted, as Unesco did, to confer primacy to official national delega tions by allowing voting rights only to their representatives. An amendment restricting membership rights in this sense was adopted, leaving the rest of the proposal unchanged. In this way the International Council on Archives was born. The alteration of the draft constitution entailed the introduction of inter national politics into the world of professional archivists. That was exactly the thing the Americans had wished to avoid. They held that ICA should deal exclusively with archival matters and not with politics but did not realise that this refraining from politics could be considered to be political by others. Democratic policy making within the organisation came under fire when the official delegate of Czechoslovakia, supported by representatives of other countries, tried to torpedo the programme of the new organisation.31 Although this attack was beaten off, it added to the disappointment of the Americans and caused them to doubt of the attainability of their ideals. At the inaugural meeting the participants declared themselves to be a Constituent Assembly, the authoritative body of the new Council, with Charles Samaran, director of the Archives de France as its president. Solon J. Buck became president of the western hemisphere and Hilary Jenkinson, whom we already met as a participant in the deliberations of 1931, was entrusted with the vice- presidency and the presidency of the eastern hemisphere. The first secretary- general was Herbert O. Brayer, one of the co-authors of the draft constitution; treasurer was elected the general state archivist of the Netherlands, D.P.M. Graswinckel. Unesco-Europe (geographical Europe with North America and Israel) was almost identical with the archival world of those days. Outside Europe the archival landscape was as Joshua Enwere put it "a wilderness punctuated only here and there by signs of progress".32 But changing this picture was not the first priority of the supranational body. Top of the agenda was the exchange of information and the process of getting acquainted with one another. The best way to start was the organisation of periodical congresses. France not only furnished ICA's first two presidents and set up a secretariat for the new organisation but also took responsibility for preparing the first international congress on archives.33 This congress was held in Paris in the summer of 1950. The interval between the first two successive international congresses had almost exactly lasted four decades, the Brussels congress being held August 28-30, 1910 and the Paris congress August 23-26, 1950. With its first congress ICA became truly operational. About three hundred and fifty archivists from twenty-four countries came together in the French capital. Official delegations from Germany and Spain were not welcome, although their archivists joined as private persons.34 The early years of ICA's existence are characterised by the construction of a solid organisation.35 A network of correspondents was set up in order to gather and channel information quickly. Thanks to the financial support of Unesco, very soon (in 1951) the first volume of Archivum was published. For some years the ICA yearbook, in which along with the proceedings of congresses also infor- DE PROFESSIE 26 Solon J. Buck, "Letter Sent to Archivists of Foreign Countries Concerning the Organization of an International Archives Council", American Archivist 10 (1947), pp. 227-231. 27 The figure "over one hundred" is mentioned by Holmes (p. 292). According to Daniels (p. 415) only eighty letters had been sent out. 28 Holmes, pp. 292-293. 29The draft was made by Solon J. Buck, Oliver W. Holmes (Buck's programme adviser at the National Archives) and Herbert O. Brayer (state archivist of Colorado and Unesco's Honorary Consultant on Archives). 162 JAN VAN DEN BROEK FROM BRUSSELS TO BEIJING 2.6 The International Council on Archives: the early years 30 German archivists had not been invited, but, at the insistence of Buck, a competent delegate of the US Military Government of Germany took part in the deliberations. 31 Remark of Brayer in a letter to Holmes, June 21, 1948. Daniels, p. 417. 32 Joshua C. Enwere, "Archival Europe and the archival world", Janus 2 (1992), pp. 327-334. Here: p. 328. 33 Charles Samaran was ICA's first president (1948-1950), his successor Charles Braibant served from 1950 until 1953. As Holmes (pp. 295-296) put it, "it was the felt desirable that the president should still be close to the Unesco headquarters." 34 Cf. Holmes, pp. 295-296; Rhoads, p. 318. 35 Eckhart G. Franz, "Der Internationale Archivrat: Vergangenheit, Gegenwart, Zukunft", Archivum 29 (1982) pp. 155-173, gives a thorough and elaborate survey of the development of ICA. 163

Periodiekviewer Koninklijke Vereniging van Archivarissen

Jaarboeken Stichting Archiefpublicaties | 1999 | | pagina 83