LIBRARIES AND ARCHlVES 8. THE NETHERLANDS

H U G H D U N T H O R N E University College, Swunsea

AS IN OTHER PARTS OF EUROPE surveyed in this series, the organization of archive collections in the Netherlands reflects the country’s history. The central repository is the Algemeen Rijksarchief at The Hague, but there is a rijksarchief also in each of the eleven provinces, and there are important municipal collections (gemeentearchieven) in the major towns; smaller municipalities are represented in regional repositories (streekarchivariuten), and there are in addition a number of specialist archives, among them the wuterschapsarchieven and hoogheemruadschapsarchieven which contain material relating to drainage and dyke-building in particular areas. The problems of Dutch history are concerned at least as much with the interests of individual towns and provinces as with the conduct of the central institu- tions of government, and anyone embarking on archive research in the Netherlands should be aware that he is unlikely to be able to confine his investigations to any single repository.

For English readers the best introduction to the organization of Dutch archives is the article by H. Hardenberg, ‘Archives in the Netherlands’, Acta Historiae Neerlandica, iii (Leiden, 1968), 266-87, which traces the evolution of the present system and outlines the contents of the principal types of repository. Archivum, v (1955), 168-73, lists Dutch state and municipal archives, with addresses, hours of opening, and other information; but Dr. W. J. Formsma’s useful Girls voor de Nederiandse Archievan (Bussum, 1967) contains a more complete list arranged by provinces and including also specialist institutions. For the eleven rijksarchieven there is a most compre- hensive guide, De Rijksarchieven in Nederland (’s-Gravenhage, 1953), which surveys the collections in detail, indicates whether inventories are published or in manuscript, and concludes with an invaluable index. The Algemeen Rijksarchief (A.R.A.), to which the book’s first hundred pages are devoted, is a provincial as well as a national repository, and comprises three sections, the first two of which contain the archives of the central organs of government, respectively for the time of the Republic (1576-1795/6) and for the period after 1795. (Sources for the study of the central administration of the country under the dukes of Burgundy and the Habsburgs must be sought mostly outside the Netherlands, at Brussels, Lille, Vienna and Simancas.) Because of lack of space at The Hague more recent records are kept at an auxiliary depot at Schaarsbergen (where there are facilities for consulting them); and most foreign affairs archives after 1871 are kept not at the A.R.A. but at the adjacent Depart~iieritsa~chief van Buitennlandse Zaken. The third section of the

217

218 LIBRARIES AND ARCHIVES

A.R.A. is a provincial archive and comparable with the rijksarchieven in the other ten provinces, whose contents are surveyed in De Rijksarchieven in Nederland, 107-357. These collections vary according to the history of the area now comprising each province, but generally they contain records of provincial assemblies, executive bodies, and such other institutions, lay and ecclesiastical, as have been active in the region : the materials go back at least to the establishment of the Republic, and usually earlier. In the case of Holland, the division of the province into two in 1840 has meant that while the third section of the A.R.A. contains the archives for the whole of Holland before 1840, as county and as province (including the archives of the counts of Holland and of the raadpensionarissen), after 1840 it has material relating only to South Holland: the records of the province of North Holland are preserved in the rijksarchief at Haarlem. Generalization is difficult also in the case of municipal and regional archives. Not every repository contains material as important as the genzeentearchief at Amsterdam or at Rotterdam; but there is a useful survey of the principal collections compiled by V. van ’t Hoff et al., Gids voor de archieven van gemeenten en waterschappen in Nederland (Groningen, 1945).

Among more specialized archives, the Koninklijk Huisarchief at The Hague contains the Orange-Nassau collections, and the historian can be directed to other family papers through the Centraal Register Familiearchieven at Utrecht. Ecclesiastical records are sometimes collected in separate archives, such as that of the Dutch Reformed Church at The Hague; but more often they are to be found in rijks- or gemeentearchieven, the importance of which is shown in Miss Rosemary Jones’s article, ‘Reformed Church and Civil Authorities in the United Provinces in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, as reff ected in Dutch state and municipal archives’, Journal of the Society of Archivists, iv (1960), 109-23. Further guidance on Reformed Church sources is available in De Archieven van de Nederlandse Hervormde Kerk in korte overzichten (Leiden, 1960). For Catholicism the principal institution is the Katholiek Documentatiecentrum recently established at the university library, Nijmegen. The Nederlands Economisch-Historisch Archief in The Hague contains commercial records; and at Amsterdam the Inter- national Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis performs a similar function in the field of social history. In the same city the Rijksinstituut voor Oorlogsdocu- mentatie has an outstanding collection of materials for the country’s history during the Second World War. The Dutch centre for demographic and agrarian history is the Landbouwhogeschool at Wageningen: work done there is published in the periodical Afdeling Agrarisch Geschiedenis Bijdt-agen. The Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie in The Hague is one of a number of specialist institutions of importance for the art-historian.

Except for a few days at Christmas and Easter, Dutch archives are open throughout the year, on weekdays usually from 9 to 5 and on Saturdays until 1 (although the A.R.A. is open all day on Saturdays) : documents for Saturday must be ordered on Friday. There are no formalities for admission, except at the Koninklijk Huisarchief, where application must be made to the director to

HUGH DUNTHORNE 219 obtain the Queen’s permission to consult the collections: in this case a formal letter of introduction is helpful. In general, documents must be fifty years old before they become open to public inspection; but exceptions are made to this rule, and foreign affairs papers are normally open after thirty years. Most Dutch archive material has been catalogued, and the many inventories published are listed in W. J. Formsma et al., Repertorium van inventarissen van Nederlandse Archieven (2nd ed., Groningen, 1966). The historian will find archive staff helpful in directing his attention to the relevant lists, printed or manuscript, and in advising him about other archives where he may find useful material; and preliminary enquiries made through the post are usually answered quickly and reliably. A loan system operates among Dutch archives so that a document can be transferred, say, from a provincial rijksarrhief to The Hague. It is not usually difficult to obtain a scat in archive reading rooms, and documents are delivered quickly; readers are generally requested not to order more than three items at a time. Ink or ball-point may be used, but not often a typewriter. Most archives and libraries have photo-copying facilities.

Many Dutch archives have libraries of their own which the research worker niay use. Conversely, there are significant manuscript collections in the principal Dutch scholarly libraries. The most important are the Koninklijke Bibliotheek in The Hague and the university libraries at Leiden, Groningen, Utrecht and Amsterdam. There is no copyright deposit library in the Nether- lands, but the system of inter-library co-operation centred on the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, where national union catalogues of books and periodicals are kept, should enable the historian to obtain everything he needs. Libraries and Documentation Centres in the Netherlands (2nd ed., The Hague, 1967) is a useful introduction, and the comprehensive Bibliotheek- en Docuntentatiegids voor Nederlund, Suriname, en de Nederlandse Antillen (2nd ed., ’s-Gravenhage, 1966) provides a complete list of Dutch libraries-and of many other insti- tutions besides-giving indications of holdings, addresses, hours of opening, and admission regulations. Some specialist libraries, such as that of the Nederlandse Agronomisch-Historisch Instituut at Groningen or of the Znstituut voor Nieuwe Geschiedenis at Utrecht, form part of university libraries; others exist independently, like the library of the Vredespaleis at The Hague, specializing in international law and diplomacy, the Economisch-Historische Bibliotheek at Amsterdam, or, also at Amsterdam, the library of the Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, with its large collec- tion of periodicals. Library opening hours are similar to those of archives (although libraries sometimes open in thc evenings) ; but for admission a letter of introduction is usually necessary, and cssential if one wishes to borrow books. In Britain the most accessible collection of books on Dutch history is in the Low Countries room of the Institute of Historical Research; but for material not available here the international library loan system operating through the National Central Library may be used: it works more quickly with the Netherlands than with most European countries. Those who believe that not ail the historian’s sources are in libraries and archives will

220 LIBRARIES AND ARCHIVES

find De Nederlandse Musea ('s-Gravenhage, 1956) a helpfui guide to some of the less-known Dutch museums.

At the risk of stating the obvious, it is worth stressing finally the importance of mastering what has already been published on a subject before investigat- ing it in the archives. A great deal of source material for the study of Dutch history has been printed, in series such as the Rijks Geschiedkundige Publi- catien or in contemporary publications like the volumes of resolutions of the States of Holland; but unfortunately neither the printed sources nor even some monographs are as familiar to British historians as they might be. The best guides to the range of material available are H. de Buck's compact Bibliografe der Geschiedenis van Nederland (Leiden, 1968) and the more detailed Repertorium der verhandelingen en bijdragen betrefende de geschiedenis des vaderlands (5v., Leiden, 1907-53), continued as the Repertorium van boeken en tijdschriftartikelen . . . (~OV., Leiden, 1943-71 [In progress]). Theses completed are listed in the Catalogue van Academische Geschrifrept in NederIand verschenen published at intervals by the Utrecht universiteits- bibliotheek; Current Research in the Netherlands: Humanities, 1969 (The Hague, 1970), published by the Zuiver Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek organisa- tion, surveys work in progress.

Archives and Libraries meniioned in ihe text Algemeen Rijksarchief, Bleyenburg 7, 's-Gravenhage (tel: 070-180196); auxiliary depot:

Koningsweg 13c, Schaarsbergen, Arnhem (tel: 083W20860). Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken, Bureau Documentatie, Casuariestraat 16, 's-Graven- page (tel: 070-614941); initial application to the archivist, Dr. J. Woltring, Hooftskade 1, s-Gravenhage.

Rijksarchief in Noord-Brabant, Waterstraat 20, 's-Hertogenbosch (tel: 04100-32000). Rijksarchief in Gelderland, Markstraat 1, Arnhem (tel: 08300-23363). Rijksarchief in Noord-Holland, Ceciliasteeg 12, Haarlem (tel: 02500-10536). Rijksarchief in Zuid-Holland, Algmeen Rijksarchief. Rijksarchief in Zeeland, Abdij, St. Pleterstraat 38, Middelburg (tel: 01 180-2767) Rijksarchief in Utrecht, Drift 27, Utrecht (tel: 030-15766). Rijksarchief in Friesland, Turfmarkt 13, Leeuwarden (tel: 05100-27103). Rijksarchief in Overijssel, Sassenpoort, Zwolle (Tel: 05200-17384). Rijksarchief in Groningen, St. Jansstraat 2, Groningen (tel: 05900-27347). Rijksarchief in Drenthe, Brink 4, Assen (tel: 05920-3523). Rijksarchief in Limburg, St. Pieterstraat 7, Maastricht (tel: 04400-14283). Gemeentearchief van Amsterdam, Amsteldijk 67, Amsterdam (tel: 020-723255). Gemeentearchief van Rotterdam, Mathenesserlaan 315, Rotterdam (tel: 010-31539) Koninklijk Huisarchief, Noordeinde 74, 's-Gravenhage (tel: 070-600756). Centraal Register Familiearchieven, Rijksarchief, Drift 27, Utrecht (tel: 030-15766). Archief van de Nederlandse Hervonnde Kerk, Javastraat 100, 's-Gravenhage. Katholiek Documentatiecentrum, Erasmuslaan 36, Nijmegen (tel: 5871 1). Nederlands Economisch-Historisch Archief, Lam Copes van Cattenburch, 's-Gravenhage. International Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis, Keizersgracht 264, Amsterdam (tel:

Rijksinstituut voor Oorlogsdocumentatie, Herengracht 474, Amsterdam (tel: 020-243312). Landbouwhogeschool, Salverdaplein 10, Wageningen (tel: 6111). Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, Korte Vijverberg 7, 's-Gravenhage

Koninklijke Bibliotheek, Kazernestraat 39, 's-Gravenhage (tel: 070-184626). Universiteitsbibliotheek, Rapenburg 70-74, Leiden (tel: 01710-21465,20741). Universiteitsbibliotheek, Wittevrouwenstraat 9-1 1, Utrecht (tel: 030-22341). Universiteitsbibliotheek, Zwanestraat 33, Groningen (tel: 0590CL31541). Universiteitsbibliotheek (Gemeente-Universiteit), Singel 423, Amsterdam (tel : 020-21 7878). Vredespaleis, Carnegieplein 2, 's-Gravenhage (tel: 070-392344). Economisch-Historische Bibliotheek, Herengracht 218, Amsterdam (tel : OS247270). Bibliotheek van de Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, Kloveniers-

020-24667 1).

(tel: 070-112398, 113444).

burgwal29, Amsterdam (tel: 020-42079).