In her inspiring book Archive Stories, Antoinette Burton has neatly summed up these
complexities regarding archives and archival collections in the statement that
"archives themselves [are] artifacts of history".15 We take this insight about the
historical nature of archives as the starting point for our exploration of the IAV/
IIAV/Aletta's archival policies and practices over the seventy-five years between 1935
and 2010. What was the impact of broader and external factors, in this case the rise
of Nazism and fascism, political activism, war, the character of the international
women's movement, developments in women's history, and the needs and wishes
of the women's movement on the institute's archival policies? Which archives were
collected, when, and why? How were these choices related to, or influenced by, the
interests andideas of the IAV/IIAV/Aletta's staff and the users of the archive?
While exploring these questions, we want to underscore some of the most important
conclusions of the 2005 IIAV-organized conference 'Traveling Heritages', namely
that collecting cultural heritage is not a neutral activity, and that special efforts
remain necessary to ensure that the heritage not only of dominant groups in society
is preserved.16
The Early IAV Archival Collections and Policies (1935-1940)
In the 1920s and 1930s, with 'First Wave' activists passing away and a rising
conservative and anti-feminist climate across Europe, Western feminists became
increasingly aware of the need to collect and preserve women's books, documents,
letters and other materials in a systematic way that would also allow scholars to
study women's history and cultural heritage.17 The Fawcett Library in London, now
The Women's Library, was established in 1926 and the Bibliothèque Marguerite
Durand in Paris opened its doors in 1932, to name but a few of the most prominent
European examples. The establishment of the International Archives for the
Women's Movement or IAV in 1935 was thus part of abroader process of
establishing women's libraries and archives.18 The IAV's first librarian, E. (Bep) Ferf,
in a letter in 1936 explained the importance of having a place to store the
documents of the First Wave of the women's movement as follows: "It is a great pity
that so many documents about the difficult period in the beginning of the struggle
for the vote and rights for women, have been destroyed. Therefore we hope to
convince the women of the world that here in Holland we have a safe place and that
everything: books, letters, pamphlets a.s.o. can be send [sic] to us to build up a
library, where the women interested in the women's movement will have the
possibility to study this movement in past and present."19
The International Archives for the Women's Movement opened its doors to the
public on December 19,1936. The IAV's goal was to promote knowledge and
scientific study of the women's movement in the broadest sense, a goal to be realized
by establishing a library and archive in which the cultural heritage of women would
154
be gathered and preserved, and by publishing books about the past and present of
the international women's movement.20 At the official opening the institute also
presented its first publication, a brochure written by historian and IAV board
member Jane de Iongh (1901-1982) entitled Documentatie van de geschiedenis der
vrouw en der vrouwenbeweging. Consisting of the new institute's acquisition
guidelines and research policies, the brochure stated:
"The Archive aims to bring together a collection of sources in whatever form
that will contribute to the knowledge of women's role in history in general, and
more particularly in the era of social development in the Western world when the
struggle for the political, economic and social emancipation of women began" ,21
As indicated by the very name of the new institute - International Archives for the
Women's Movement - the words of librarian Ferf quoted above ("the women of the
whole world") and those of Jane de Iongh herself, it is clear that the IAV regarded
itself as a 'truly international' institute and intended to collect sources from women
worldwide (in which it differed from most other contemporary women's libraries
and archives, which had a more national/local focus) ,22 To a considerable extent the
155
ARCHIEFVORMER EN PARTICULIER ARCHIEF
15 Burton, Archive Stories, 6.
16 Wieringa, Traveling Heritages, 11-12.
17 Maria Grever, Strijd tegen de stilte. Johanna Naber 1859-1941en de vrouwenstem in geschiedenis (Hilversum
1994).
18 One of the earliest examples that we know of in Europe is the Biblioteca de la Dona, founded in Barcelona in
1909 by Francesca Bonnemaison along with women members of St. Anna's parish, now called Biblioteca
Francesca Bonnemaison. In the US, Rosika Schwimmer and Mary Beard tried to establish the World Center
for Women's Archives in the 1930s, see Nancy F. Cott (ed. and with an introduction), A Woman Making
History. Mary Ritter Beard Through Her Letters (New Haven and London 1991).
FRANCISCA DE HAAN AND ANNETTE MEVIS THE MAKING OF THE COLLECTION INTERNATIONAAL ARCHIEF
VOOR DE VROUWENBEWEGING (iAV)
The official opening of the IAV on December 19, 1936, Keizersgracht 264 in Amsterdam.
Source: Picture archive IAV no. 100007291photographer unknown.
19 Letter in English from the IAV Librarian, E. Ferf, to Phyllis Lovell, October 9, 1936. Quoted in De Haan,
'A "Truly International" Archive', 148, which also describes the reasons for founding the IAV in a more
detailed way.
20 Jaarboek Internationaal Archief voor de Vrouwenbeweging I (Leiden 1937) 12-16.
21 Our translation, FdH and AM. Jane de Iongh, Documentatie van de geschiedenis der vrouw en der
vrouwenbeweging Leiden 1936) 9.
22 For the phrase 'truly international', see Leila J. Rupp, 'Challenging Imperialism in International Women's
Organizations, 1888-1945' NWSA Journal 8:1 (1996) 11-13.
