for the Mission of the Dutch Reformed Church (Raad voor de Zending van de
Nederlandse Hervormde Kerk has recently been recatalogued. It measures about
300 meters and contains the archives of most predecessors, starting with the
Nederlandsch Zendelinggenootschap founded in 1797.
Experts have written a handy research guide, published in April 2010 when the
archive was officially reopened.5 The same experts edited a set of nine volumes
with a treasure of valuable documents about the history of Protestant mission
in the Dutch East Indies. These books have also been digitized by the Institute of
Netherlands History.6 A new digital research guide covering all Protestant and
Catholic missions was published in December 2011.7 This guide will cover all
missionary organisations, missionaries and persons concerned with the mission
operating from the Netherlands between 1800 and I960.8 The Erfgoedcentrum
Nederlands Kloosterleven (Heritage Centre for Monastic Life in the Netherlands)
has published some inventories on its website. 9
The legal environment of private archives is quite different from that of
government archives in the Netherlands. The latter are subjected to laws and
regulations, which define which documents have to be preserved and which not.
Further on: at what time the documents are made public, where the archives are
stored and who is qualified to look after them? The first Dutch archive law dates
from 1918. The present law came into operation in 1995. These laws contain no
clauses pertaining to private archives which are subject to conditions usually
arranged between the owner and the archivist.10 The owner of a private archive is
free to do as he wishes with his archive. He may destroy it (partly) and can refuse
to admit researchers.
Questions
This article strives to advance our knowledge of archives of missionary
organisations and individual missionaries. Based on the views presented
in the first paragraph I will try to answer five questions:
a) Which information was put onto paper by missionaries and boards of
missionary organisations?
b) How were the documents archived and which systems were in use to handle
the papers?
c) What was preserved and transferred to a 'static' or 'historical' repository when
the problem had been solved?
d) Who were in charge of keeping the archive?
e) Who were admitted?
TON KAPPELHOF ARCHIVES OF DUTCH DHRISTIAN MISSIONARY ORGANISATIONS AND MISSIONARIES
INFORMATION POWER - FROM HAGIOGRAPHY TO HISTORIOGRAPHY
7 Authors of the guide are: Dr. Ton Kappelhof projectleader, Kirsten Hulsker MA and Gerrit de Graaff MA.
Mrs. Kirsten en mr. de Graaff are writing a PhD thesis on missionary work in the southern part of Dutch
New Guinea after the Second World War. De Graaff's thesis was defended on 1 March 2012, Hulsker's
thesis will be submitted in 2012 or 2013.
8 See for the English and Dutch project description the site of the Huygens Institute for the History of the
Netherlands: www.huygens.knaw.nl/RepertoriumVanNederlandseZendings-EnMissie-Archievenl800-1960.
9 www.erfgoedkloosterleven.nl.
10 Boven, De Archiefwet109-110.
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