The Hague Municipal Archive

I am now officially employed in The Netherlands. No more idling away my days practising the lost art of thumb twiddling. I'm in gainful employment with the Expatriate Archive for a flat out four hours per week. This is rather more lucrative than volunteering at the Archive, either way I'm there two days a week.

Medieval Document

Last week the staff and volunteers of The Expatriate Archive Centre had an excursion. We were invited to visit the Haags Gemeentearchief, The Hague’s Municipal Archive. This included a tour by Corien a senior archivist loaned to the EAC and the director of the Gemeentearchief itself Maartijn. Any body can visit the reading rooms of The Archive to do research and can access any public document here, but it was a bit exclusive to tour the 14km of underground shelving representing centuries of history that makes up the city’s Archive.

The Archive keeps documents relating to the history of The Hague such as civil records; photographs; newspapers (the collection goes back to the 18th century) and various other historical bits and bobs. The oldest document dates from 1313. Many of the medieval documents published before the invention of the nifty printing press or laser printers, featured beautiful calligraphy on parchment with red wax seals all in very good condition. Some interesting original photographs that we were able to view including the interior of luxury rooms of the Titanic. It was a Dutch furniture manufacturing company called HP Mutters & Son, who were contracted to decorate some of the first-class staterooms and public rooms of the Titanic.

Titanic interior

While most documents can be accessed by the public, there is still some material in the Archive relating to World War Two that remain secret until certain people drop off.

The Archive is underground, beneath the Stadshuis or city hall, an iconic modern building in the city centre. The more I visit the building the more I like it. The building which includes the library was designed by Richard Meier and completed in 1995. Nicknamed the ice palace, it’s 250 by 75 metres and twelve stories high, white and only white,  with a glass ceiling, glass elevators and a huge central atrium across which aerial bridges run. Thoroughly modern in contrast with antique paperwork beneath.