The Making of the Collection
Internationaal Archief voor de
Vrouwenbeweging (IAV)
Seventy-Five Years of Collecting, Receiving, and
Refusing Women's Archives (1935-2010)*
In 1935, three Dutch women founded the Internationaal Archief voor de Vrouwen
beweging (IAV) in Amsterdam, by now one of the oldest women's libraries and
archives in the world. The three women involved, Johanna W.A. Naber (1859-1941),
Rosa Manus (1881-1942/3) and Willemijn Posthumus-van der Goot (1897-1989),
each represented a different generation in the Dutch women's movement and had
her own reasons for wanting to establish a women's archive. From its beginning in
1935, the IAV collected books, journals, photographs and archives.1 In the course of
this seventy-five year history, the institute twice changed its name. Here we will
generally use the name that was valid in the period in question: IAV for the years of
193 5 to 1988; I IAV for 1988 to 2009; Aletta for the years 2009-2010.2
Earlier articles about the IAV/IIAV, both in Dutch and English, have described
various aspects of the institute's eventful history, from the reasons of its founding to
the looting by the Nazis in 1940 of its entire contents - from books, journals, and
archives to the furniture and curtains -, the discovery of part of the stolen contents
in a 'special archive' in Moscowin 1992, and the subsequent return of these
treasures from Moscowin 2003.3 In this essay we will focus on the history of the
IAV/IIAV/Aletta's archival policies and practices, a subject only partially explored in
earlier literature but of crucial importance for understanding the present institute
and its contributions to preserving women's cultural heritage in the Netherlands.
In the mainstream, positivist perspective on history, archival documents are seen as
providing an uncontested foundation for 'the truth about history': archives, in this
view, are treasure troves of 'pure facts'. Such a perspective, however, seriously
underestimates the many historical forces that shape archival institutions and the
collections they keep.
First, there are larger economic, political, and cultural factors that influence or
determine which archival material is saved and/or made available to scholars and
the broader public. These include the question of which countries in the world can
afford to have well-equipped archival institutes with professional archivists4; the
impact of wars5 and other violent conflicts on the materials kept by individuals and
FRANCISCA DE HAAN AND ANNETTE MEVIS
This is an updated and expanded version of 'The IAV/IIAV's Archival Policy and Practice. Seventy Years of
Collecting, Receiving, and Refusing Women's Archives (1935-2005)', published in Saskia E. Wieringa (ed.),
Traveling Heritages. New Perspectives on Collecting, Preserving and Sharing Women's History (Amsterdam
2008). With thanks to Saskia Wieringa and publisher Aksant for their permission to publish this revised
version.
1 This article discusses only the archival collection of the institute, that is, the papers it keeps from private
organizations and individuals, mostly women. The collections of books, periodicals, pictures and documen
tation have somewhat different histories, with other timelines and accents, which we will not discuss.
2 In July 2012 Aletta, instituut voor vrouwengeschiedenis merged with E-Quality, kennisinstituut voor
emancipatie, gezin en diversiteit. On January 28, 2013, the new name of the merged institutes was
announced: Atria, kennisinstituut voor emancipatie en vrouwengeschiedenis. Importantly, whereas the
name of the institute has changed several times, the name of the collection has remained the same since
1935 and still is Internationaal Archief voor de Vrouwenbeweging (IAV).
3 Mineke Bosch, 'A Woman's Life in a Soapbox. The Collection of Personal Documents of Women in the
Internationaal Archief voor de Vrouwenbeweging in Amsterdam' History Workshop Journal. A Journal of
Socialist and Feminist Historians 24 (1987) 166-170; Myriam Everard and Mineke Bosch, 'Feminisme als
150
FRANCISCA DE HAAN AND ANNETTE MEVIS THE MAKING OF THE COLLECTION INTERNATIONAAL ARCHIEF
VOOR DE VROUWENBEWEGING (lAV)
The founders of the Internationaal Archief voor de Vrouwenbeweging (IAV) in 193 5.
From left to right: Johanna W.A. Naber (1859-1941), Rosa Manus (1881-1942/3) and
Willemijn Posthumus-van der Goot (1897-1989).
Source: Composition 3 photographs Picture archive IAV; photographer Manus J. Merkelbach, others
unknown.
oorlogstrofee. De vooroorlogse IAV-archieven in Moskou', in: Jaarboek voor Vrouwengeschiedenis 14 (1994)
193-200; Jolande Withuis, 'Een schatkamer van feministische kostbaarheden', in: De jurk van de kosmonaute.
Over politiek, cultuur en psyche (Amsterdam etc. 1995) 114-141; Vilan van de Loo, Moet terug. Privaat
eigendom. De roof, het zoekraken en de uiteindelijke terugkeer van de IAV-archieven (Amsterdam 2003);
Francisca de Haan, 'A "Truly International" Archive for the Women's Movement (IAV, now IIAV).
From its Foundation in Amsterdam in 1935 to the Return of its Looted Archives in 2003',
Journal of Women's History 16:4 (2004) 148-172.
4 See, for example, Jeff Sahadeo, "'Without the Past There Is No Future'. Archives, History, and Authority in
Uzbekistan'", in: Antoinette Burton (ed.), Archive Stories. Facts, Fictions, and the Writing of History (Durham
and London 2005) 45-67.
5 Robert Young provides a recent tragic example of the impact of war: "When in May 1992, Serb nationalist
forces threw incendiary grenades into the Oriental Institute (Orijentalni institut) in Sarajevo, home to one
of Europe's most important collections of Islamic manuscripts: 'Virtually all of its contents were consumed
by the flames. Losses included 5,263 bound manuscripts in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Hebrew and local
alhamijado - or adzamijski - (Serbo-Croat-Bosnian in Arabic script), as well as tens of thousands of
Ottoman-era documents'." Robert J.C. Young, Postcolonialism. A Very Short Introduction (Oxford 2003)
23-24.
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