A Usable Collection: Essays in Honour of Jaap Kloosterman on Collecting Social History

Contents

Preface Henk Wals

Social History Sources, Knowledge and Research Introduction to A Usable Collection Aad Blok, Jan Lucassen and Huub Sanders

How to Qualify for the Directorate of the 1sH?

Part I — The Emergence Of Social History Collections 1.3

1.4

L5

1.6

L7

Prolegomena to a Social History of Dutch Archives Eric Ketelaar

The founder of the sp, as Experienced by his Daughter Interview with Claire Posthumus Huub Sanders

Looking for Traces of Huizinga

His Relation with N.W. Posthumus, Based on Unpublished Letters and a Text Huub Sanders

Working for the Institute

Kees de Dood, N.W. Posthumus and

the International Institute of Social History, 1940-1950 Alex Geelhoed

The Persistent Life of The British Merchant Co Seegers

Harry Stevens, the British "Correspondent" of David Rjazanov's Institute On the History of Collecting at the Marx-Engels Institute (1927-1931) Irina Novichenko

The Importance of Friendship The Shared History of the rAv[rtAv and risu Francisca de Haan and Annette Mevis

CONTENTS

Part II — The European Collections Of The Iish: Acquisitions And Catalogues

Di A Broken Mirror The Library of Ferdinand Domela Nieuwenhuis Bert Altena

1.2 The Archives of Hendrik de Man A Tragedy Wouter Steenhaut

1.3 Trying to find a Masked Man An Unfinished Investigation Marien van der Heijden and Franck Veyron

11.4 La Rosa de Foc Collecting Anarchist Materials Andrew H. Lee

1.5 The Key to the Library's Collection Rules and Practices Coen Marinus

11.6 From Ice Age to Global Warming The Libraries of the Amsterdam Oo and the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) Rüdiger Zimmermann

1.7 Does a History Research Institute Need its Own Archive? Karl Heinz Roth

1.8 A Manuscript Found at the Institute Kees Rodenburg

IL9 Did Castoriadis Suppress a Letter from Pannekoek? A Note on the Debate regarding the "Organizational Question" in the 1950s Marcel van der Linden

1110 Matriarchy and Socialism French Precedents Francis Ronsin

1111 Neo-Malthusians A Photograph Jenneke Quast

1112 Secret Suitcases Dutch Communist Party Papers Margreet Schrevel

1113 Long live the Library!

The Book Collections of the 11sH in particular the KNAW Library Elise van Nederveen Meerkerk

IL14

The 11sH as a Trailblazer in Technology in the 1990s

Jaap Kloosterman’s Transformative Breakthroughs

Henk Wals

Part III — The Iish And Eastern Europe Ii.1

III.2

III.3

11.4

III.5

III.6

III.7

Publications of Posrednik and Svobodnoe Slovo Publishing Houses in IISH’s Russian Collections Els Wagenaar

Bakunin and Bacon Cake E-editing in Social History Lex Heerma van Voss

The Activities in Moscow after 1991 and Memorial Francesca Gori

Rescue Efforts in Post-Soviet Moscow Nanci Adler

Archival Revolution and “Intellectual Access” in Russia ArcheoBiblioBase in Moscow and Amsterdam Patricia Kennedy Grimsted

Sources for Writing the History of Russia and the Soviet Union National and Transnational Perspectives Gijs Kessler

The Making of Collective Memory The Politics of Archive in the Soviet Azerbaijan Touraj Atabaki and Solmaz Rustamova-Towhidi

Part IV — The Iisg Goes Global Iva

IV.3

The long Journey of the DHKP Archive

From the Turkish Prisons to the Gan

Zülfikar Özdoğan

The Egyptian and Sudanese Communist Collections

Roel Meijer

Collecting under Uncertainty The Creation of the Chinese People’s Movement Archive Tony Saich

IV.4

IV.5

IV.6

CONTENTS

From Dhaka with Love The Nepal Nag Papers and the Sino-Soviet Split Willem van Schendel

The Role of Archives and Archivists in the Contemporary Age in Ensuring the Transmission of Collective Memory Stefano Bellucci

Gunnar Mendoza A Life to Share Rossana Barragán Romano

Jaap Kloosterman A Tentative Bibliography

Notes on the Contributors

Preface

Much of what I know about the ep and about collecting social history I learned from Jaap Kloosterman. This is understandable, since we teamed up for decades running the usu: first Jaap was deputy director and I head of operations, later Jaap became director, and I advanced to deputy director. We interacted daily, sometimes in very intense sessions in times of crisis, as well as on our many long drives together to the Czech Republic or Hungary to fetch collections there. Jaap and I often shared the same view about many things. Whenever we differed, our positions were very complementary. In 2006, when I left the 11sH to become the director of the Huygens Institute, I was suddenly on my own and without a sparring partner. That was an adjustment for me, and my guess is that Jaap had to get used to it as well.

I have returned to the (sn and once again see Jaap daily. I still value his opinion. That each of us now has a different role matters little to me. We interact as we always have, even though Jaap’s office has been moved a few doors further away. He is an exceptionally valuable advisor, and I hope to continue to benefit from his input for quite a while.

Jaap Kloosterman has been involved with the risu throughout his career. In 1969 he started working at the Institute in the Bakunin Department. In 1985 he became deputy director of Collections, and he was appointed director in 1993, when Eric Fischer left for a position at the Verbond van Verzekeraars. Jaap's appointment was not taken for granted within the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences (KNAW). Board members of the KNAW usually take the view that acclaimed scholars make the best directors of its institutes. Appointing Kloosterman - a university dropout — may have been an occupational accident within the erudite society of the Academy, but the choice was very fortunate indeed for the IISH.

In hindsight, after all, Jaap Kloosterman has in my view been one of the best directors the 11sH has had and easily holds a candle to Posthumus, Rüter, and Fischer. Eric Fischer, during his relatively brief period as director between 1984 and 1993, gave the Institute a complete overhaul, setting up a research department, acquiring the new premises at Cruquiusweg, and extending collection development beyond Europe. And it was Jaap Kloosterman's innovative spirit that guided the (sn into an unprecedented heyday in the 1990s. Jaap introduced information technology in the (en very early on, revolutionized collection processing, and was aware before anyone else of the enormous impact the Internet would have. Under his aegis, the (en became a pioneer in many fields and became renowned as a superior international research institute.

Jaap Kloosterman had a unique managerial style that is difficult to describe. He did not operate according to a set protocol. “Coaching” may best

PREFACE capture his approach. Jaap often talks with co-workers, possibly over dinner at whatever happens to be his favourite restaurant at the time. His impressive knowledge of virtually all areas the Institute covers may unintentionally be overwhelming, but he rarely imposes his ideas, at least not noticeably.

Jaap’s most distinctive trait is his ability to relativize. What many people would call “wonderful,” he will at best label “nice” or “usable,” often preceding such modifiers with the qualifier “fairly.” The title of this book — A Usable Collection — refers to this practice. In addition, the term “usable” is the shortest possible summary of Jaap’s chief principle in developing and cataloguing the 11sH collection: it should be usable for researchers. This was the basis for many of his decisions, which in many cases were years ahead of what was to become standard practice in traditional library and archival circles.

Jaap Kloosterman gave his co-workers extensive latitude. Thanks to his efforts, the 11sH has become a setting where creativity and individual initiative thrive. Jaap is immensely tolerant of deviant, wayward behaviour. In fact, he appreciates it. This receptive disposition appeals to people of any ilk and all political affiliations and encourages them to contribute to the lsu.

In seeking out knowledge, Jaap leaves no stone unturned. His opinions and ideas derive from his great familiarity with the subject concerned. In debates he is rarely at a loss for words and is very convincing. This coincides with another trait: careful reflection about every word he puts in writing. Jaap’s publications sometimes have an extended gestation period, but, once they are done, they do not contain one word too many or too few and are not subject to revision. He despises peer review for this reason, since he believes that all suggested changes will mean deterioration. He is probably right about that.

Many co-workers, former co-workers, and other contacts have nonetheless contributed to this volume, edited by Aad Blok, Jan Lucassen, and Huub Sanders. Thanks to the authors and the editors, the result is impressive in terms of both size and content. It is not a traditional Festschrift serving a hagiographic purpose but a serious work about a subject particularly dear to Jaap Kloosterman: the (sp. We hope this book reflects the immense merit that Jaap has had for the Institute, and that remains undiminished.

Henk Wals

Social History Sources Knowledge and Research