Bridge billboard Dutch Communist Party
A special way of election propaganda in Amsterdam has always been the bridge billboard. Recently the IISH acquired a unique specimen of this typical eye-catcher. Sometimes artists were engaged to make something beautiful of it. Painter Antje IJpelaar (Antje Bernhardine IJpelaar, Amsterdam 1942 - 1987) made this bridge billboard for the Dutch Communist Party (CPN).
Posted: Februari 2010

Invarianti. Per descrivere le trasformazioni
Elogio della pigrizia vigile, poco urbana, "periodico politico-culturale", issues 1-35 (1987-2001)
Financed by an editor supporting the PSI (Italian Socialist Party), Invarianti, from its beginnings in 1987 resembled a radical house organ, embellished by images chosen without specific reason.
In 1993 the publisher closed down, and Invarianti became "independent": some things changed (editors, collaborators) but what stayed was its complete ban on internal criticism.
In 1996 Paola Ferraris invited Filippo Scarpelli to collaborate, and in 1998 Roberto Galeotti also joined the magazine.
Number 34 of Invarianti was distributed in 2000; its attack on the left-wing artists provoked their exit from the review, forcing Invarianti's secret owner to become public at its closure. In 2001, No. 35 or the last issue was published, which was even 'worse' than the earlier ones.

Finanziata da un editore vicino al PSI Invarianti, all'inizio (1987), somiglia ad un magazine radical-aziendale illustrato con immagini scelte senza criterio.
Nel 1993 l'editore chiude. Invarianti diventa "autoprodotta": qualcosa cambia (redazione, collaboratori, interessi) resta, invariante, il divieto assoluto di critica interna.
Nel 1996, su invito di Paola Ferraris, inizia a collaborare Filippo Scarpelli e, nel 1998, Roberto Galeotti. Nel 2000 esce il numero 34; un attacco agli artisti di sinistra che provoca la loro fuoriuscita da Invarianti e obbliga la proprietà segreta della rivista a manifestarsi per chiuderla. Nel 2001 esce l'"ultimo numero", il 35, assai peggiore del precedente.
Text: Paola Ferraris and Roberto Galeotti

Archive of Jacques D'Hondt
In 2009 the Institute received the larger part of the personal archive and part of the library of the French philosopher Jacques D'Hondt. Professor Jacques D'Hondt (Tours, 1920) was professor at the University of Poitiers and an expert on the philosophy of Hegel. He was introduced to Hegel's work through the study of Marx. D'Hondt developed a new and original point of view on Hegel's philosophy. He pointed out that the sources of Hegel's philosophy are to be found in the French Enlightenment. Archive and library connect beautifully to the large collection of works by and on Hegel that the Institute already possesses. Jacques D'Hondt was very active in disseminating knowledge about Hegel in France. He maintained many international contacts. Posted: Februari 2010

Collection Caroline Nevejan
At the end of the 1980s and beginning of the 1990s, Caroline Nevejan was program editor responsible for the social programs of Paradiso in Amsterdam. Some appealing programs were the Galactic Hacker Party 1989 and the Seropositive Ball 1990. The analysis of these events were the basis for her doctoral thesis in 2007: "Presence and the Design of Trust." In those years Paradiso was home to clubs such as the Chaos Computer Club which publicized its critical opinions with regard to privacy and the power of government.
Posted: Februari 2010

Photo collection of Ewald Vanvugt

Recently the IISH acquired a large collection of black-and-white photographs and negative prints by Ewald Vanvugt (Den Bosch, The Netherlands 1943), a socially oriented writer and photographer. From 1963 Vanvugt published a series of novels, short stories, and poems. Later on he also wrote books and articles on work ethics, slavery, opium traffic, and colonial history. During the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, he traveled through India, the United States of America, South America, Indonesia, and Iran. In 1983 he lived for six months on the Indonesian island of Bali. At the end of the 1980s he traveled through the Soviet Union. In 2003 he toured South Africa and Namibia. He wrote countless travel stories about his adventures on his trips. Vanvugt also took many photographs that illustrated social issues: the called these "the wonderful everyday world of" beggars, pot smokers, drinkers, child labour, lepers, women's labour, transvestites, and a lot more. Some photos were published in several Dutch magazines and papers, such as Vrij Nederland, the VPRO-gids, and de Volkskrant.
Some photos by Vanvugt have been posted to Flickr.
Posted: Februari 2010

Supplement to the archive of Robert Danneberg
The Institute received an extraordinary supplement to the archives of Robert Danneberg (1885-1942). Danneberg was an important man in the Austrian and International socialist movement. On the day of the Anschluss, he tried to flee with his two children to Czechoslovakia. His wife, Gertrud Schröbler, was to joint them the next day. But the train was stopped at the border and forced to return to Vienna. There Danneberg was immediately arrested. The children and their mother were later allowed to emigrate to London. Robert Danneberg was killed in Auschwitz in 1942. The supplement consists of letters by Danneberg to his family from German concentration camps. It also includes an extensive correspondence between Jakob Danneberg and his future wife during their engagement in the 1880s. Jakob Danneberg, originally from Budapest, in 1892 in Vienna founded the satirical periodical Pschütt-Karikaturen and owned an advertising agency.
Brief archival description
Posted: Februari 2010

Buttons and posters
Antonia Bosshard, co-founder of the Leeszaal voor de Bevrijding van de Consument [Reading Room for the Liberation of the Consumer] and active in the Nieuwmarkt neighborhood in Amsterdam, gave the Institute approximately 100 posters and 2500 buttons. Especially the addition of buttons is unique. The present collection consists of just over 5000 items. An increase of 50% in one jump is a very welcome event. The buttons are from many different countries, mainly from the 1970s and 1980s.
Posted: Februari 2010

Archive Max Kohnstamm
In 1938-1939 Max Kohnstamm (1914) took a long trip through the USA to study how President Roosevelt's New Deal worked in practice. Together with his father, he wrote extensively about his experiences. He saw the New Deal as a preview of developments that would reach Europe some years later. It was no surprise that a selection of these letters, written with the threat of looming war as a very realistic background, were published as a book. This and other correspondence, as well as the diaries, are the heart of this private archive, which will be partly opened for research at the beginning of 2010. The archive of his public life as advocate of the United States of Europe is available at the European University in Florence.
Posted: Februari 2010

Flag
This flag was presented in 1938 to the Dutch company of the XIth Brigade (Brigade Thälmann) of the International Brigades of volunteers who fought in Spain on the side of the Republic against the forces of Franco. The flag was a gift from the Union of Women of Catalonia. During the German occupation of the Netherlands (1940-1945), the flag was hidden in the house of pro-Republic veteran Siebe Dolstra. The flag was sewn between two blankets as camouflage.
Posted: Februari 2010

Chinese posters - the Jean-Yves Bajon collection
Recently the IISH purchased a large collection of Chinese propaganda posters and related materials from the years 1949-1979. The Frenchman Jean-Yves Bajon gathered this collection while he lived and worked in Shanghai from 1994 until 2000. In 2001 Bajon published Les années Mao. Une histoire de la Chine en affiches, featuring an extensive selection from his collection, which comprises over 500 posters not yet present in the IISH/Landsberger collection. Topics and periods are well-distributed, from the rise of the People's Republic through the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution to the years of gradual liberalization.

In addition to posters, the collection comprises over 500 picture postcards featuring small reproductions of posters and about one hundred illustrated booklets. They provide the context of the posters and reveal their role within a broader range of propaganda media.

The few dozen catalogues from poster publishers are especially interesting: these illustrated brochures reveal the selection of a publisher from a given year, including images and extensive data. Such catalogues enable a comprehensive reconstruction of the complete official poster production and visualize the appearance and disappearance of themes and motifs. In the years ahead, the IISH hopes to collect such catalogues systematically.

We purchased the Bajon collection thanks in part to financial support from the Friends of the IISH, the Zuster Mart Nienhuis Stichting, and the SNS Reaal fund.
Posted: April 2009

Booklets for Russian village libraries
Around 1900, people's and village school libraries expanded enormously in Russia. In his manual about starting and organizing such educational libraries, Sredi knig ('Among the books'), St. Petersburg, 1906, IISH shelf mark R1/10M, the renowned bibliographer N. Rubakin writes: 'Books are one of the most powerful instruments in civilizing and informing the people, at school and elsewhere, as well as in the struggle for truth and justice.' The IISH received approximately one hundred leaflets, published around that time and especially intended for these people's and village school libraries, often in series with titles such as 'Life and work of our ancestors,' 'In our own and other countries,' and 'Frank education'.
The collection Izdanie Posrednika consists of 40 titles.

Personal papers of Leo Frank
Eliazer (Leo) Frank was born in Groningen in 1908. He grew up in a poor Jewish home there. Initially a Zionist, he worked on farms in the Netherlands, Germany, and near Marseille to pursue the Palestine prospect. Member of the SDAP and joined the Independent Socialist Party (Onafhankelijke Socialistische Partij, OSP) in 1932. Studied law and philosophy at Groningen University under Leonard Polak. Regularly published in the General Groningen student weekly Der Clercke Cronike on the threat of rising National Socialism. Self-employed as a lawyer in 1939. Forced labour at Camp Het Wijde Gat near Staphorst in the summer of 1942. Frank escaped and went into hiding. Joined the resistance and was caught. Killed on arrival at Auschwitz in early 1944. The papers include correspondence, lectures for the VARA radio station, and articles for Der Clercke Cronike. See also: Stefan van der Poel, Leo Frank (1908-1944). Politieke analyses van een Groninger student in de jaren 1930 (Groningen: RUG, 2005). Brief archival description.
Posted: April 2009

Tom Küsters
Tom Küsters was born in Groesbeek in 1943. Although he died in this same town in 2008, he was deeply involved in the world outside the Netherlands throughout his active life. In the 1970s he participated in the Vietnam movement in Nijmegen and produced a series of posters on the subject. The Vietnam War intrigued him. He built a model landscape of Dien Bien Phoe, where French colonialism in Indochina collapsed. Armed with ordnance survey maps that now pertain to the archive corresponding with the model, he examined the situation on site. Küsters was also interested in the rise and murder of Lumumba. The work of art, featuring 120 portraits of people involved in this case, is part of the collection. Non-political work of Tom Küsters, who was also a skilled marathon runner, is now at the Valkhof Museum in Nijmegen. The IISH collection consists of the scale model and related documentation, screen prints and printed materials. See also posters by Tom Küsters.
Posted: April 2009

HAPIN Archive
In March 2009 Papua leader Nicolaas Jouwe, in exile since the 1960s, first returned to Papua, formerly Dutch New Guinea. Coincidentally, arrangement of the archive of the Stichting Hulp aan Papua's in Nood [Foundation for Aid to Papuas in Need] (HAPIN) entrusted to the IISH was completed in late 2008. In 1972 this foundation was established by Dutch people (who were mostly Protestant) and Papuas in the Netherlands who identified with the indigenous population of Papua. The archive, which spans 2.25 m., covers the period 1967-2006 and comprises minutes from board meetings, correspondence, documents about manifestations in the Netherlands (e.g. speeches by Nicolaas Jouwe) and grant proposals, travel reports, and other documents concerning development projects that HAPIN supports on West Papua. Brief archival description.
Posted: April 2009