Contents
- A look into the archives of Camille Huysmans
- The digitalization process
- Consult the archive via the online catalogue and inventory
- The photo collection
- The library collection
A look into the archives of Camille Huysmans
By Gert Van Overstraeten
As a socialist politician, Camille Huysmans left his mark on Belgian domestic politics and also a prominent role internationally . The extensive archive he left behind contains a wealth of source material on a wide variety of topics.
1871 was not only the year of the revolutionary uprising of the Paris Commune, but also the year Camille Huysmans was born. The year he died saw the Paris student revolt of May 1968. During this period of almost a century, Huysmans witnessed dramatic events such as two world wars, the Russian Revolution, the Spanish Civil War, the Cold War, and the struggle for independence for the colonies.
Several things stand out in his archive. Regarding national politics, these certainly include the ups and downs of the Belgian Socialist Party ( and affiliated organizations), local Brussels and especially Antwerp politics and related interests of the port of Antwerp, the diamond industry, and the Jewish population, all sorts of educational issues , the language conflict and community issues (in which his efforts to Dutchify Ghent University play a significant role), the interned Belgian soldiers in the Netherlands during World War I and the Belgian refugees in Great Britain during World War II (and, respectively, activism and amnesty, and collaboration and purge), the Royal Question , and the independence of the Belgian Congo and Rwanda-Urundi. Internationally, there is firstly his role in the Socialist International , and especially as secretary of the International Socialist Bureau (1905-1922) where he played a prominent part in the Stockholm Peace Conference of 1917. And then later as secretary and president of the Labour and Socialist International/Internationale Ouvrière Socialiste (1940-1945) and as rapporteur of the Trieste Commission of the Socialist International (early 1950s).
A non-exhaustive list of these striking themes should not obscure the fact that the archive contains such a wealth of material that it is sometimes difficult to see the forest for the trees. Huysmans was involved in opposing the requirement for Catholic female teachers to resign upon marriage, was fiercely opposed to cockfighting, introduced a bill banning boxing and catch matches, acted as an intermediary in the sale of documents proving Christopher Columbus' Jewish origins, was a board member of the international peace organization Organisation centrale pour une paix durable during World War I, and vice-chairman of the anti-fascist group Fight For Freedom during World War II, among many other international organizations in which he played an active role throughout his life. The number of items on which the archive contains information is virtually endless and extremely diverse.
Moreover, Huysmans was not only an alderman and twice Minister of Culture (and Education), but also had passion for all things cultural : literature, poetry, theater, music, painting… few art forms held secrets for this cultural jack-of-all-trades. Even linguistics, toponymy, and the chambers of rhetoric held his interest. One might wonder where on earth the man found the time to delve into these subjects. His love and commitment to all these disciplines are also reflected in his archives. Among these, his chance discovery, at the tender age of 16, of the manuscript of the 17th-century mystery play "De Menschwording" (The Wording of Man) by rhetorician Michiel De Swaen stands out, as does the very first scholarly toponymic study of his native village of Bilzen, which he wrote with his friend Cuvelier, or the fantasy play "Luna," also written by him, and of course his well-known predilection for the stories of Reynard the Fox and Till Eulenspiegel, which he truly adored.
As a socialist, pacifist, anti-fascist, internationalist, journalist, and politician, Huysmans maintained hundreds of close contacts throughout his life, with both famous and unknown individuals. His archive contains thousands of letters and other related documents. Remarkably, for Huysmans, as a rabid anti-clerical and anti-fascist, this archive also includes a striking number of clergy members and collaborators—whether alleged or not.
Jack-of-all-trades Camille Huysmans was certainly not one to be pigeonholed, and that makes his archive all the more interesting.
The digitalization process
By Maarten Savels
Between 2017 and 2020, the entire Huysmans archive was digitised , which is an enormous added value for research.
This project would not have been possible without the substantial financial support of the Camille Huysmans Research Foundation . Amsab-ISG is extremely grateful to the Foundation, and especially to Dr. Roger Rennenberg, for enabling us to preserve Huysmans' archival materials in this way. Shortly after acquiring the Camille Huysmans archive, it was decided that it needed to be digitized. Two reasons were behind this decision.
On the one hand, Huysmans was a remarkably fascinating person who, throughout his long life, held many important positions and had a wide and international circle of acquaintances. It's therefore no surprise that there's worldwide interest in his archive. Digitized documents can be made available online relatively easily, which is a boon for researchers abroad.
On the other hand, the archive – just like Huysmans himself – has lived. It has been moved several times, and certain parts have become damaged over the years by light, moisture, and use. Therefore, it is not easy to regularly remove this fragile archive from its protected environment for research. Once a piece has been digitized, however, it should never be removed again. A researcher must then have access to a faithful copy of the original. Among other things, the color reproduction must be as accurate as possible. That is why we used Metamorfoze, an internationally recognized and very strict guideline for digitization. This guideline stipulates a large number of conditions. One of the most important is that the digitization equipment must be calibrated at least daily using color charts and targets that allow for the assessment of white balance, exposure, orientation, and color fastness. These charts are digitized, and the results are measured with specialized software. Only when all measurements fall within certain margins can the equipment be used to digitize items.
Of course, not every piece in the archive is equally interesting. Moreover, digitization is quite expensive and labor-intensive. Furthermore, storing and securely preserving the digitized copy should not be underestimated. Therefore, it proved necessary to select. Only the documents Huysmans himself compiled or collected for a clear purpose were considered. Clippings that Huysmans kept purely for documentation purposes, or documents that can also be found elsewhere, such as widely distributed publications and parliamentary documents also published in the Staatsblad (State Gazette), were excluded. We selected 2,777 of the 3,302 files, totaling just under 340,000 pages.
Such digitization projects, due to their size and technical requirements, can never be carried out in-house. To ensure the outsourcing process runs as smoothly as possible, thorough preparation is crucial. The selected files were inspected one by one. A damage atlas was created, the number of pages was determined, and the page size was measured. Each file was also provided with a barcode and a label highlighting the most important points for the digitization company. This could indicate, for example, that a file is very fragile and must be handled with extreme care. Once the project is underway, the company sends the images of the calibration targets daily, along with their measurements. The goal is to verify the measurements as quickly as possible. If there are errors, the digitization device is incorrectly configured and the image quality is poor. This could result, for example, in images with a color cast. In that case, the entire batch for that day is rejected, and the company must recalibrate the device and redigitize the affected files. Upon delivery of the images, several additional checks are performed, including verification that no pages have been skipped. It goes without saying that such checks are very labor-intensive. For 10 to 15 hours of digitization, one hour of checking is often required.
The digitization project took place in two phases. First, 545 highly vulnerable files were selected. These were also particularly interesting files from the First World War and the period when Huysmans was secretary of the Second International. These files were already digitized in 2017. The remaining 2,232 files were completed in 2019-2020.
© Amsab-ISG
Consult the archive via the online catalogue and inventory
Camille Huysmans's inventory was processed at Amsab-ISG by archivist Gert Van Overstraeten and is available in Dutch and English. A large portion of the archive was also digitized with the support of the Camille Huysmans Research Foundation and can be consulted through the image bank of our online catalog.
Consult the complete archive in the online catalogue
Consult the Dutch inventory as a PDF
Go to the English inventory in PDF
The photo collection
By Rita Calcoen
The photo collection consists of thousands of photos, both from Huysmans' private life and from his impressive political career.
The oldest photo dates from 1866 and is a group photo of the International Workers' Congress in Geneva. The most recent is a photo of his children Sara and Paul Huysmans with his grandson Jean-Dominique in 1976.
Extensive photo collections like this are usually never fully made available online. This is not only extremely labor-intensive, but also not always relevant. Therefore, a representative selection was made with great care. This doesn't mean that the rest of the collection cannot be found online or is inaccessible. In this specific case, it is stored according to the originally assigned themes, and every photo can be found that way.
View Camille Huysmans' photo archive in the online catalogue
A sneak peek:
© Amsab-ISG
The library collection
By Ellena Franquet
The Camille Huysmans archive includes an extensive library collection , of which more than 2,500 books and 700 newspaper and magazine titles have been incorporated into the Amsab-ISG collection.
Common themes include socialism and the (international) labor movement, the socialist press at home and abroad, education, war and pacifism, the Jewish community and culture, the Flemish movement, and more. In short: a reflection of both Camille Huysmans' political career and personal interests.
Two notable subcollections are worth mentioning. On the one hand, the extensive collection of music publications demonstrates Huysmans' passion for music and singing: we find not only books on music and music history, but also scores and songbooks with battle and folk songs. On the other hand, his background in linguistics and literature is evident in the various publications on language, literature, folklore, and legends, in which Tijl Eulenspiegel and Reynard the Fox are frequently recurring characters.
Besides these themes, publications also emerged that did not fit within the collection profile of our library. These were primarily a collection of art books and novels by Camille herself, and the library collection of his daughter Sara Huysmans (containing primarily French-language literature). These books were not integrated into the collection, but in 2020 found a new home at the Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library in Antwerp. After processing, the library will compile a list of the collections to be added to the Amsab-ISG online catalog. You can find the library items that were included via the link below or in our online catalog using the search term 'Camille Huysmans Library'.
View the Camille Huysmans library collection in the online catalogue