Amsab-ISH
Bagattenstraat 174
9000 Ghent
Phone: +32 (0)9 224 00 79
Email: info@amsab.be
Opening hours
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About the collection
Amsab-ISG is the memory of the social movements in Flanders and Belgium, from the mid-19th century to the present day.
Our collection focuses on important themes such as labor, the environment, migration, gender, human rights, and global justice. It includes archives from trade unions, political parties, health insurance funds, NGOs, cultural organizations, and engaged artists. Our heritage comprises archival files, library collections, audiovisual materials, art, and intangible heritage—increasingly in digital form.
- Editorial: Paule Verbruggen
In Bread & Roses 2026/1 stands the figure of Louis Varlez (1868-1930) takes center stage. Varlez was a Ghent lawyer, professor of law, and sociologist. His name remains primarily associated with the first Belgian unemployment insurance system—supported by local authorities—which gained international recognition as 'le système gantois'. After the First World War, he built an international career at the newly established League of Nations and the International Labour Organization in Geneva. Despite this impressive career, he was rarely mentioned outside the circle of social historians. Historian Jasmien Van Daele rescued him from oblivion with an extensive biography. However, the three contributions in this issue demonstrate that many aspects of his work and life can still be explored in greater depth. These are primarily based on the Varlez archives at Amsab-ISG and Liberas.
In addition, we pay attention to the glass plate collection of Amsab-ISGNo fewer than 10.488 glass plates were recently digitized by meemoo, the Flemish Institute for the Archives. These fragile heritage objects have thus been transformed into razor-sharp images of daily life between the end of the nineteenth and the middle of the twentieth century. A selection is currently on display in the exhibition. (Un)exposed at Amsab-ISG. In her contribution, Nina Moens outlines the possibilities, but also the challenges of photography as a historical source.
€7.00
- Editorial: Paule Verbruggen
In Bread & Roses 2025/3 Historian Vital Stichelbaut presents his master's thesis, an educational pilot project on the use of archival documents in lessons on homosexuality in secondary education. Joris van Parys and Julia Glunk highlight the blossoming friendship between Frans Masereel and Stefan Zweig in Switzerland in 1917-1918. Marc Constandt writes about the rise of beach portrait photography on the Belgian coast during the Belle Époque. Finally, we present a selection of images of solidarity actions with Palestine, preserved in the Amsab-ISG collection.
€7.00
- Editorial: Paule Verbruggen
This edition includes a look at the tense relationship between Belgian socialist leader Emile Vandervelde and Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini, and a deep dive into Studio Stone – a unique photo collection by two pioneers of modern photography from the interwar period, much of which is preserved at Amsab-ISG.
€7.00
- Editorial: Paule Verbruggen
In this edition: the union world of government personnel, the logbook of the Borze der Compagnons Boek-drukkers der stad Gent, farewell to photographer Lieve Colruyt, the archive of the non-profit organization Burgerdienst voor de Jeugd, Akte van de Hoop (Deed of Hope), and our Studio Stone exhibition.
€7.00
- Editorial: Paule Verbruggen
About the night shelter the Ghent Work of the Night Shelter, disease-specific patient associations, the archive of the Ghent Fietsersbond, documents of the United States Escape Program from our collection and the exhibition Young and queer since the sixties.
€7.00
- Editorial: Paule Verbruggen
About Frans Masereel as an inspiration for the first graphic novelists, the Marchfeier at the Cemetery of the March Fallen in Berlin as a popular protest in a context of war and revolution, the photo collection of Variétés in Amsab-ISG, the strike of the employees of the Antwerp Grand Bazaar in 1936 …
€7.00
- Editorial: Paule Verbruggen
About the citizen movement for the "Restoration of Historical Memory" in Spain, the secret contacts between Belgian socialists and State Security in London, a new Social Pact, cholera and corona, the significance of August Vermeylen today, the archives of the Merelbeke Medical Center and Arthur De Decker, Walter De Mulder's photographs, websites as a new source for the history of tomorrow...
€7.00
- Editorial: Paule Verbruggen
About the 1920 Antwerp Olympics, the genesis of the United Nations in 1945, the whistleblowers who exposed the harsh reality of Belgian colonial policy, the iconoclasm against Belgian colonial heritage, Leopold II and the coast, how to make old digital media readable again, and archives as societal memory.
€7.00
- Editorial: Paule Verbruggen
On Union Minière's political intervention in Congolese independence, the sexual revolution as a flexible historical concept, 'good' and 'bad' historians of Belgian Congo, the Wilchar collection at Amsab-ISG, and on books.
€7.00
- Editorial: Paule Verbruggen
On the role of the International of War Opponents in the Flemish peace movement, the development of Flemish protest against genetically modified organisms, a fiery essay by Gramsci, the archives of the Ecuadorian Esmeraldas Center, gouaches promoting edifying youth literature…
€7.00
- Editorial: Paule Verbruggen
About Jules Ruhl, the 'apostle of the Belgian animal protection movement', the experiences of two master students with an oral history project on male and transgender sex work in Antwerp, the class conflicts on the steamships from Antwerp to America at the end of the 19th century, and some important acquisitions of the Suzan Daniel Fund.
€7.00
- Editorial: Paule Verbruggen
About how the Belgian refugees ended up in a concentration camp in Spain during WWII, First-generation Turkish women to the word, the wealth of information in the Belgian postcard, and an emotional discovery in the Amsab-ISG image collection.
€7.00
- Editorial: Paule Verbruggen
About the Belgian solidarity movement with the Iranian Revolution in the late 1970s, the fascinating life story of the 'dark red' Ghent resident Ferdinand Minnaert and the rich collection Camille Huysmans in Amsab-ISG.
€7.00
- Editorial: Paule Verbruggen
On the difficult relationship between the socialist Camille Huysmans and the banker Paul Timbal during WWII, the coup in Chile in 1973, first passenger train in Belgium and the migration collection in Amsab-ISG.
€7.00
- Editorial: Paule Verbruggen
About the role of the women's movement in the independence struggle in Aden (present-day Yemen), the project Last Week by history students about Ghent commons, the phenomenon of the beach donkeys and the co-creative process behind the exhibition We have never been the Turks.
€7.00
- Editorial: Paule Verbruggen
About the Belgian People's Houses, the experiences of a former miner Constant Malva, a publication about Lalla Vandervelde, the theme migration in Amsab-ISG and the hashtag appreciation.
€7.00
- Editorial: Paule Verbruggen
On the reproductive role of Moroccan women from Mechelen, advertising campaigns on the Flemish coast, an manual from 1911 in connection with the Ghent municipal elections from our collection, the initiative Platform Assistance Ledeberg and a testimony of a delegate at the VRT.
€7.00
- Editorial: Paule Verbruggen
About vegetarianism in Belgium, oral testimonies from the metal industry, the search for the meaning of a winged flagpole from our collection, a exhibition about us cycling heritage and the archive of Non-profit organization Action Group Environment Kempen (FALCON).
€7.00
- Editorial: Paule Verbruggen
€23.00
- Editorial: Paule Verbruggen
€42.00
- Editorial: Paule Verbruggen
€44.00
- Editorial: Paule Verbruggen
About integrate in Flanders, identity evolution in historiography, Amnesty International in Flanders, the universality of human rights and the processing of the archive of the non-profit organization JONG.
€7.00
- Editorial: Paule Verbruggen
About Brussels resident Joseph Milot , socialist activist late 19th - early 20th century, Dutch historian Barbara Henkes , Lode Verbraecken, a Belgian brigadier in the Spanish trenches, digitizing construction drawings and the archive of The Wielewaal department Ghent .
€7.00
- Editorial: Paule Verbruggen
About the Belgian backroom politics prior to the NATO Double Decision, the political speeches of August Vermeylen and the 100-year history of the sanatorium De Mick.
€7.00
- Editorial: Paule Verbruggen
About the changing role of the pharmacist in the 1960s, a symposium about the very diverse aspects of the abortion issue, and the participatory project Break time from Amsab-ISG.
€7.00
- Editorial: Paule Verbruggen
About the short-lived Socialist Republic of Georgia (1918–1921), the failed attempt by the socialists to First World War to avert and the phenomenon of the bath cabin on the Belgian coast.
€7.00
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