The work of later archivists – from 1912 onwards

After Colenbrander, the work of arranging and describing the remaining components of the VOC Archives was carried out by successive generations of archivists. However, for many years after 1912 a silence fell upon the records while the events before and during the first and second world wars ravaged Europe and many other parts of the world.

In 1937, Mrs M.A.P. Meilink-Roelofsz (c1911-1988) began her work on the VOC Archives. Building on the numbering of the documents used in the inventory that had been compiled by Heeres and Colenbrander, Meilink-Roelofsz did a re-inventory in order to integrate the details of all the components of the VOC archival records into a complete inventory (Pennings, 1992, p. 43). She completed her task in 1963 and two years later, on the basis of her new inventory, the archives were all numbered

consecutively. Pennings proclaimed that the complete inventory, contained in nine typescript volumes, thereafter “ facilitated access to the VOC Archives and has stimulated research into the history of the Dutch overseas, as well as Asian history”

(Pennings, 1992, p. 43). By building on the work of her predecessors, primarily the inventories they had compiled, Meilink-Roelofsz completed an inventory of the VOC Archives. Table 5 depicts the categories of originating offices used in her 1992 Inventory of the VOC Archives.

Table 5: Table of contents of the Inventory of the VOC Archives (1992) Part I: The Heren XVII and the Amsterdam Chamber

A. Charters B. Proceedings C. Outgoing documents

D. Incoming documents from Europe E. Incoming documents from Asia

… 5a. Letters and papers received from Asia by the Heren XVII and the Amsterdam Chamber²⁷ F. Documents from the committees of the Heren XVII and the Amsterdam Chamber

G. Documents from the advocates of the VOC

H. Documents kept separately, partly originally miscellaneous documents I. Documents from the departments and offices

27 De Jonge, Heeres and Colenbrander conducted their archival activities on these volumes.

K. Documents from the clerks’ office of the Amsterdam Chamber

E. Documents of the Governor-General and Council received by the Heren XVII and the Zeeland Chamber

F. Documents received from the Court of Justice in Batavia by the Heren XVII and the Zeeland Chamber G. Documents received from the establishments in Asia

H. Documents of the committee for the ten-yearly and four-yearly accounts I. Documents kept separately, partly originally miscellaneous documents K. Documents from the departments and offices

I. Old inventories of the chamber Part III. Delft Chamber A. Incoming documents

B. Documents originating from the directors Adriaan and Gerard van Vredenburch C. Documents concerning the commerce PM

D. Documents concerning the equipage PM E. Documents concerning the salary administration F. Documents concerning the financial management Part IV. Rotterdam Chamber

A. General

B. Incoming documents

C. Documents concerning the decline of the VOC PM

D. Documents concerning the equipage and the salary administration E. Documents concerning the commerce

F. Documents concerning the financial administration Part V. Hoorn Chamber

A. General

B. Documents concerning and originating from the directors C. Documents originating from the equipage department D. Documents originating from the commercial department E. Documents concerning the financial administration F. Documents concerning the management of the archive Part VI. Enkhuisen Chamber

A. General

B. Documents concerning the salary administration C. Documents concerning the commerce

D. Documents the financial administration

Part VII. Documents with no apparent connection with the VOC Archives Part VIII. Obsolete finding aids to the VOC Archives

Details from the English translation of the main document categories (Raben, 1992, p. 145-151).

The first one hundred years of the third custodial phase of the VOC records encompassed the work of a dedicated group of archivists (notably Heeres,

Colenbrander and Meilink-Roelofsz) who guarded, analysed, rebuilt and shaped the collection of records now known as the VOC Archives. The primary device for communication between each generation of archivists was the inventories and descriptive products compiled in them.

Meilink-Roelofsz retired from the General State Archives in 1971 to take up a position as extraordinary professor of history, however she continued to occupy herself with the history of the early Dutch East Indies. She had intended to write the general introduction to the inventory of the VOC archives but was not able to do so, having died in 1988. That same year work began on the publication of the inventory under the editorial guidance of Remco Raben, Joyce Pennings supervising the project completed when the inventory was published in 1992 (Meilink-Roelofsz, 1992;

Raben, 1992).

Following the publication of the VOC inventory in 1992, a new research era for the VOC Archives began, the inventory, having documented the composition of the archives, and thereby opening up the records to potential users.

The TANAP initiative began with a 1997-1998 development of a project Towards a New Age of Partnership (TANAp); a Dutch/Asian/South African programme of cooperation based on a mutual past²⁸, jointly developed by the National Archives of the Netherlands and the Research School for Asian, African and Amerindian Studies CNWS of Leiden University. From 2000, funds were made available by the Dutch Government and the Netherlands Institute for Scientific Research to create the TANAP website http://www.tanap.net. The latter website is a vital communication hub for the TANAP program.

After almost a century and a half of dedicated work by successive archival custodians and researchers, the VOC Archives were jointly nominated for inclusion to the UNESCO Memory of the World Register, the nominees being five countries, The Netherlands, India, Indonesia, South Africa and Sri Lanka. The application was accepted in 2003²⁹, this recognition being a crowning achievement for the VOC Archives and the dedicated work of its successive archival custodians.

28Details from http://www.tanap.net/content/about/first_steps.cfm [accessed 10 March 2008]

29Details from http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=7364&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html [accessed 10 March 2008]