concentrated on early medieval history. What happened after 1800, the mission
on Curacao inclusive, was not considered as interesting.54A following phase can
be the transfer to a public archive or a depository specialised in a specific group of
archives. The Utrechts Archief, a public archive established in the city of Utrecht
that has been an (arch)bishopric intermittently since about 700 A.D., has
developed into a concentration point of Protestant and Catholic church archives
in the Netherlands. It has already been mentioned that apart from the archive
of the Raad voor de Zending in Utrecht also the smaller but very interesting
archive of the Zeister Zendingsgenootschap can be consulted. An example of a
specialised depository is the Erfgoedcentrum Nederlands Kloosterleven (Heritage
Centre for Monastic Life in the Netherlands) in St. Agatha not far from the
city of Nijmegen. Many archives of religious orders and congregations are to be
found there and it is to be expected that more archives will follow.55 The resulting
concentration of archives makes scientific research easier and will attract
more researchers. The decision to bring the documents to St. Agatha depends
on the financial resources of the congregation. The Erfgoedcentrum does not
receive subsidies from the government, therefore a congregation that would like
to transfer its archive to St. Agatha has to pay a lump sum, depending on
its resources.
e. Who were admitted?
The archive of the Nederlandsch Zendelinggenootschap was a closed archive. Even
the members of the board living outside Rotterdam were only partially informed
about the decisions taken by their Rotterdam colleagues. These directors could
attend the monthly meetings during which the secretary who made the minutes
and kept the archive, read the latest minutes. Extracts from these minutes called
Extract Aden were printed in a very small number and sent to the directors. They
were not for sale and publishing information from these extracts was prohibited.
When Kruijff wanted to write a book about the history of the Dutch Protestant
mission, Rotterdam initially refused to cooperate. Kruijf only succeeded in getting
his information on the NZG by appealing to directors who gave or lent him
Extract Aden 56 The society's members only received the printed annual report
and other printed matter. The London Missionary Society seems to have been
more open to outsiders. Richard Lovett was requested to write the history of the
first century of the society after Rev. Ralph Wardlaw Thompson had failed to
complete this task. The result was a book of 1, 610 pages published in 1899.57
In his introduction Lovett thanked the directors for 'the free and unreserved
manner in which everything in their possession has been placed at his disposal.
The letters, journals, manuscripts, minute-books have been entrusted to him
to make whatever use of them'. When the German Lutheran missionary expert
Rev. Gustav Warneck tried to gather information about the amount of money
163
TON KAPPELHOF ARCHIVES OF DUTCH DHRISTIAN MISSIONARY ORGANISATIONS AND MISSIONARIES
INFORMATION POWER - FROM HAGIOGRAPHY TO HISTORIOGRAPHY
53 Repertorium Nederlandse zendings- en missiearchieven.
54 Monteiro, Gods Predikers, 28-33 and 37-39.
55 The rich archives of the Minorite Franciscans, that have played a very important role in the Catholic
mission, however, have been deposited in Het Utrechts Archief in Utrecht.
56 Kruyf, Geschiedenis Nederlandsche Zendelinggenootschap, 24-26 and introduction, p. ix-xii.
57 Lovett, London Missionary Societythe quote at p. vi.
