Guide to the Archives of the United
Nations, International, and Regional
Organisations
August 2011
Harvard University/UNF United Nations History Project
David Allen
2
Contents
Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 5
‘A legitimate and even necessary dream’: Interview with Jens Boel, Chief Archivist of UNESCO .. 8
Introduction ................................................................................................................................................... 8
Interview ....................................................................................................................................................... 11
Historians and the Archives of Internationalism ............................................................................ 16
United Nations and International Organizations ........................................................................... 17
United Nations ...................................................................................................................................................... 18
UN Photo Library ....................................................................................................................................... 20
UN Audio Library ....................................................................................................................................... 21
UN Video and Film Collection ................................................................................................................. 22
United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG) .................................................................................................... 23
League of Nations ....................................................................................................................................... 24
UNESCO ............................................................................................................................................................... 25
United Nations Peacekeeping............................................................................................................................. 26
UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) ......................................................................................... 27
UNICEF................................................................................................................................................................. 28
UN–HABITAT .................................................................................................................................................... 29
United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).............................................................. 30
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) ............................................................ 31
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)................................................................................................. 32
International Labour Organization (ILO) ........................................................................................................ 33
International Court of Justice (ICJ) ................................................................................................................... 34
Permanent Court of International Justice (PCIJ) .................................................................................. 34
Archives of the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal ............................................................... 34
International Monetary Fund (IMF) ................................................................................................................. 35
World Bank Group............................................................................................................................................... 36
Bank for International Settlements (BIS) ......................................................................................................... 37
World Health Organization (WHO) ................................................................................................................. 38
World Trade Organization (WTO) ................................................................................................................... 39
International Telecommunication Union (ITU) ............................................................................................. 40
International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) ......................................................................................... 41
World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) ........................................................................................ 42
The Commonwealth ............................................................................................................................................ 43
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) ................................................................................................. 44
Organization of American States (OAS) .......................................................................................................... 45
European Integration ........................................................................................................................................... 46
Historical Archives of the European Union ........................................................................................... 46
European Parliament .................................................................................................................................. 48
Council of Europe ....................................................................................................................................... 49
3
Council of the European Union ............................................................................................................... 50
European Commission ............................................................................................................................... 51
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) ...................................................... 52
International Non-Governmental Organizations ............................................................................ 53
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) ....................................................................................... 54
Rockefeller Foundation ....................................................................................................................................... 55
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace ................................................................................................ 56
Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) ....................................................................................................................... 57
World Wildlife Fund (WWF) .............................................................................................................................. 58
Greenpeace International .................................................................................................................................... 59
Amnesty International (AI) ................................................................................................................................. 61
Helsinki Watch/Human Rights Watch ............................................................................................................. 62
Rotary International ............................................................................................................................................. 63
International Olympic Committee (IOC) ........................................................................................................ 64
World Scout Movement ...................................................................................................................................... 65
Catholic Church .................................................................................................................................................... 66
World Council of Churches ................................................................................................................................ 67
Personalities of Internationalism .................................................................................................... 68
Secretaries-General (League of Nations) .......................................................................................................... 68
Eric Drummond (1919–1933)................................................................................................................... 68
Joseph Avenol (1933–1940) ...................................................................................................................... 69
Séan Lester (1940–1947) ............................................................................................................................ 70
Secretaries-General (United Nations) ............................................................................................................... 71
Gladwyn Jebb (1945–1946) ....................................................................................................................... 72
Trygve Lie (1946–1952).............................................................................................................................. 73
Dag Hammarskjöld (1953–1961).............................................................................................................. 74
U Thant (1961–1971).................................................................................................................................. 75
Kurt Waldheim (1972–1981) ..................................................................................................................... 76
Javier Pérez de Cuéllar (1982–1991) ........................................................................................................ 77
Boutros Boutros-Ghali (1992–1996) ....................................................................................................... 78
Kofi Annan (1997–2006) ........................................................................................................................... 79
Others ..................................................................................................................................................................... 80
Ralph J. Bunche ........................................................................................................................................... 80
Andrew W. Cordier ..................................................................................................................................... 82
UNESCO Directors-General .................................................................................................................... 83
Julian Huxley (1946-1948) ................................................................................................................ 83
Luther Evans (1953-1958) ................................................................................................................ 84
UNICEF Executive Directors .................................................................................................................. 85
Maurice Pate (1947-1965) ................................................................................................................. 85
Henry R. Labouisse (1965-1979) ..................................................................................................... 85
Carol Bellamy (1995-2005) ............................................................................................................... 86
4
ILO Directors-General............................................................................................................................... 87
John G. Winant (1939-1941) ............................................................................................................ 87
David A. Morse (1948-1970)............................................................................................................ 87
World Bank Presidents ............................................................................................................................... 88
John J. McCloy (1947-1949) ............................................................................................................. 88
Eugene R. Black, Sr. (1949-1963) .................................................................................................... 89
George Woods (1963-1968) ............................................................................................................. 89
Robert S. McNamara (1968-1981) .................................................................................................. 90
IMF Managing Directors ........................................................................................................................... 91
Camille Gutt (1946-1951) ................................................................................................................. 91
Per Jacobsson (1956-1963) ............................................................................................................... 92
WHO Directors-General ........................................................................................................................... 93
Brock Chisholm (1948-1953) ........................................................................................................... 93
Further Collections ......................................................................................................................... 94
United Nations Oral History Project (Yale University, New Haven) ......................................................... 94
United Nations Career Records Project (Bodleian Library, Oxford) .......................................................... 95
Aletta, Institute for Women’s History (Amsterdam)...................................................................................... 96
Herbert H. Lehman Collections (Columbia University, New York) ........................................................... 97
The National Archives (London)....................................................................................................................... 98
5
Introduction
The physical archives of the United Nations and other international organizations are quickly being
digitised, but remain scattered and difficult to navigate. Digitization and improved practice are leading to
greater ease of use. This renewed focus is symbolized by Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon in a video for
the UN Archives and Records Management Section (UNARMS), in which he states that archives hold ‘the
key to our human story’.
They are also the key to a new breed of international history which focuses less on relations between
nation states, and more on international organizations, NGOs, and transnational or cultural forces. Using
the archives of internationalism is vital to this new history, which attempts ‘to transcend both the
institutional history of the United Nations system and the predominant state- and nation-centred historical
research.’1 As Professor Emma Rothschild has written,
These records and archives of international administration are sensationally unromantic in
the nineteenth-century historians’ sense, or Ranke’s sense, of documents in archives as “so
many princesses, possibly beautiful, all under a curse and needing to be saved. They have
very little of the twentieth-century historians’ sensuousness of archives, very little of the
disorientation, the “suspended state of impressionability” into which historians enter, in
entering into the lives of other people. The archives of international organizations look like
conference rooms, or depositories of commission reports, or screens full of sentences. “In
a memorandum laid before us by the Technical Sub-Committee there is a sentence which
sounds like a sigh,” a Danish delegate said in the UNESCO meeting of 1946… The
archives of the UN are full of sentences that sound like sighs. But so too is the real world
of internationalism.2
The study of truly international history is still in its infancy. One practitioner, Matthew Connolly, says that
he wonders ‘whether the reason is that it requires slogging through archives – not just those of India [or
other nation-states], but of many international and nongovernmental organizations. When I work in the
archives of the World Bank or the World Health Organization or the Ford Foundation, I find myself
virtually alone.’3
This guide aims to provide guidance on the archives of all major international organizations, as well as
major personalities such as UN Secretaries-General, by acting as a portal to other websites and by giving
information such as location, access rights, contact details, and so on, in order that the sighs of
international organizations might be more clearly heard.
As it is nominally responsible for the archives of all international organisations, the UNESCO website is
the best place to start any research. In 2009, a joint project between UNESCO and the International
Council on Archives, Section of Archivists of International Organizations (ICA/SIO) led to the creation
of UNESCO’s ‘Guide to Archives of International Organizations’. The guide gives information for around
Holger Nehring, ‘UN Sources concerning Germany: A Guide to Archives and Research’.
Emma Rothschild, ‘The Archives of Universal History’, Journal of World History, Vol. 19 No. 3 (2008), pp.
396-397.
3 Matthew Connelly, comments in ‘AHR Conversation: On Transnational History’, American Historical
Review, Vol. 111 No. 5 (December 2006), pp. 1453.
1
2
6
80 organizations, including non-UN bodies. However, it is out of date in some areas, and this guide should
be taken as a more usable first port of call unless stated otherwise.
Equally useful, and more general, is UNESCO’s Archives Portal, which covers not just international, but
state and non-governmental bodies. The London School of Economics hosts a community-review site
giving tips for archives around the world at its ‘Archives Made Easy’ page. There are a few entries,
downloadable as .doc files, for the archives of international institutions, though they may already be out of
date. That there are so few entries shows how new the study of international history that takes
international organizations into account really is. At the time of writing, the American Historical
Association’s Archives Wiki is very far from being complete, but should develop over time.
The UN itself provides a page of links under the title ‘UN System Libraries’. There is a difference,
however, between UN libraries – listed at the UN Libraries Central Gateway – and archives held at UN
offices: most of the libraries hold only published materials relevant to the part of the world in which they
are situated. This database deals only with locating primary source material, whether manuscript or
audiovisual, in physical archives: there are databases for online resources elsewhere on this website.
However, the central page of the UN Official Documents System is very useful for important, published
documents, resolutions, and so on.
Centralised as some papers of interest are, national archives and university collections might still be the
best place to research internationalism, especially as many people’s associations with international bodies
are fleeting. In that sense, studying international history in this vein can require a good deal of detective
work.
If you work for an international organization which is not featured here, please get in touch.
Useful Links
UN Archives and Records Management Section
UN Archives and Records Management Section Links
UN Documentation: Research Guide
UN Official Documents System
UNESCO ‘Memory of the World’ Project
UNESCO Guide to Archives of International Organizations
UNESCO Archives Portal
International Council on Archives (ICA)
Centre for History and Economics report on UN Archives (2002)
LSE ‘Archives Made Easy’ Project
Bibliography
7
‘AHR Conversation: On Transnational History’, American Historical Review, Vol. 111 No. 5 (December
2006), pp. 1441-1464
Amrith, Sunil, Declonozing International Health: India and Southeast Asia, 1930-65 (London: Palgrave Macmillan,
2006)
Anderson, Carol, Eyes off the Prize: The United Nations and the African-American Struggle for Human Rights, 19441955 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003)
Connelly, Matthew, ‘Seeing Beyond the State: The Population Control Movement and the Problem of
Sovereignty’, Past and Present, No. 193 (November 2006), pp. 197-223
Mazower, Mark, ‘The Strange Triumph of Human Rights 1933-1950’, Historical Journal 47, No. 2 (2004), pp.
379-398
Nehring, Holger, ‘UN Sources concerning Germany: A Guide to Archives and Research’,
http://www.histecon.kings.cam.ac.uk/internationalhistory/documents/nehring_un_sources.doc
Rothschild, Emma, ‘The Archives of Universal History’, Journal of World History, Vol. 19 No. 3 (2008), pp.
375-401
8
‘A legitimate and even necessary dream’: Interview with Jens Boel, Chief Archivist of UNESCO
Introduction
[TO BE USED ONLY WITH PERMISSION]
Jens Boel is the Chief Archivist of UNESCO, and kindly agreed to be interviewed about his specific
position, and archival work in international institutions. An edited transcript of the interview is reproduced
below.4
Boel is a Vice-President of the International Council on Archives, and President and Chair of the Section
of International Organisations in the ICA. Born in 1955, Boel graduated in History and Political Science
from the University of Copenhagen in 1984, starting his career as a schoolteacher. Having written his first
published history book in 1985, Boel became a regional archivist in Sjaelland, Denmark, before taking a job
as Archivist and Research Fellow responsible for the Danish Department of the Greenland National
Archives, where he worked between 1987 and 1993, and concurrently helped to produce a TV programme
on Greenland’s colonial history, and wrote his second book. In 1993, Boel moved to the UNESCO
Archives in Paris, and was promoted to his current job as Chief Archivist in 1995.
Archives are the foundations of any historical research: it is through using them, more often than not, that
we can bring new evidence to light, to alter pre-existing interpretations. If one of the purposes of historical
study is to liberate the past, to rescue the unknown from what E. P. Thompson called the ‘enormous
condescension of posterity’, then the archives of international institutions, whose histories have scarcely
been touched upon, will be particularly important to the progress of the historiography of
internationalism.5 Likewise, if history is partly about the creation, recovery, sometimes even the destruction
of a collective or individual historical consciousness, the maintenance and use of the archives of
internationalism – particularly an internationalism specifically about the sharing of culture, such as that of
UNESCO – carries great potential.
In its early days, a proto-world archive project was seen as a potential benefactor towards world peace.
Solon Buck, the head of the United States’ National Archives, wrote in 1947 that ‘recorded ideas constitute
an enormous body of documentation that serves as a reservoir from which are drawn most of those ideas
in the minds of men that constitute civilization’. Civilization, he wrote, ‘rests squarely on documents’, its
‘preservation and improvement’ depending on the ‘effective utilization of man’s cultural heritage of
documents’.6 For Buck, internationalism depended on archival cooperation between nation-states, because
I should like to place on record my thanks to Mr. Boel for taking the time to answer questions requiring
lengthy answers with such thought and generosity.
5 E. P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class, London: 1966, Vintage, p. 12.
6 Solon J. Buck, ‘The Archivist’s “One World”’, The American Archivist, Vol. 10, No.1, January 1947, pp. 910.
4
9
histories based ‘upon the archival resources of a single country cannot be otherwise than one-sided and
nationalistic’.7
The implication, in a mid-century rhetorical framework which saw strong internationalism as a barrier to
nationalistic war, was that international archives could help maintain the peace. As the UNESCO
constitution puts it, ‘since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences of
peace must be constructed’.8 As with the broader cultural and socio-economic aims of UNESCO as a
whole, archives, archive-sharing, and the collected archives of mankind’s cultural heritage (for, as Buck put
it, ‘mankind possesses one human culture or civilization, with many local variants and adaptations’), might
help avoid another, potentially cataclysmic war. UNESCO, as the guarantor of archival internationalism,
through the International Council on Archives, plays a crucial role in this.
Such almost utopian ideas have not entirely gone away, nor been left uncriticised. The Christian realist
Reinhold Niebuhr, for instance, wrote that the premise of UNESCO was cursed from the state, its ‘error’
being its fundamental premise ‘that its various forms of cultural cooperation are of immediate political
significance in resolving overt conflicts in the world community’. 9 Yet in his book outlining his theory of
history, even the neo-realist historian John Lewis Gaddis could write that ‘a collective historical
consciousness… may be as much a prerequisite for a healthy well-rounded society as is the proper
ecological balance for a healthy forest and a healthy planet’. 10 Although Gaddis might not, one might easily
extend such ideas to international or civil society. Though Boel accepts that it might work the other way –
archival discoveries might ‘lead to tensions’ – he believes that archives have and might continue to have
roles in reconciliation, for instance in Cambodia and Rwanda. There is still room for the hopes of the
1940s, despite being fundamentally altered in form by technology and tempered by experience, to remain ‘a
legitimate and even necessary dream’. Digitisation, Boel implies, makes a universal archive a more feasible
aim, and the archives of international institutions more relevant.
The distinction between the utility of archives in themselves and the use of archives by historians,
professional or otherwise, is never a clear one. Boel’s answers constitute in some senses a plea to historians
to use what is available to them – more available than they might think. UNESCO has been luckier than
many international organisations: numerous works of scholarship have been written on its past, not least
because its cultural activities have aided historians in their work in the first place. Historians, he argues,
have to put in as much work to the maintenance and availability of archives as do archivists. Only with
historians’ expressions of interest, making it clear to policymakers ‘both at a national and international
level… that the archives of these institutions are valuable and that public access to them is important’ for
their research, can archivists keep their side of the bargain.
Ibid, p. 17.
http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.phpURL_ID=15244&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html.
9 Reinhold Niebuhr, ‘The Theory and Practice of UNESCO’, International Organization, Vol. 4, No. 1,
February 1950, p. 5.
10 John Lewis Gaddis, The Landscape of History: How Historians Map the Past, Oxford: 2002, Oxford University
Press, p. 149.
7
8
10
Yet Boel is reluctant to go too far. One argument about the paucity of academic work about international
institutions is that because their histories have not been adequately written, they have no real public
identity, making them less useful in fulfilling the roles that they were set up to fulfil. Boel seems to take his
cue from historians such as Mark Mazower (writing on the UN) or Sunil Amrith (writing about the WHO),
who reconstruct the founding and development of international institutions to show their inherent
contingency.11 ‘Since archives are the traces of the past,’ he writes, ‘they are clearly important as evidence
as the backbone of historical constructions, which are the organizations of today.’
David Allen
March 2011
Mark Mazower, No Enchanted Palace: The End of Empire and the Ideological Origins of the United Nations,
Princeton: 2009, Princeton University Press; Sunil Amrith, Decolonizing International Health: India and Southeast
Asia, New York: 2006, Palgrave Macmillan.
11
11
Interview
DA: How did you get your current job?
JB: I applied for my initial job in UNESCO (Reference Archivist) in response to an international vacancy
notice, which I saw in Denmark. The recruitment process took about one year! The job vacancy for my
present job (Chief Archivist) was also advertised publicly and internationally.
What are the best and worst aspects of your position?
The best aspects are to work for UNESCO (I strongly believe in its mission and relevance and consider it a
true privilege to work for the ideas and values the UN and UNESCO stand for) and, more specifically, to
have
a
clearly
defined,
interesting
professional
field
(developing,
preserving
and
making
available/known/used the institutional memory of the Organization) combined with a considerable
freedom to suggest priorities and take initiatives. I also appreciate the cross-institutional dimension of my
work – I’m working with colleagues in all [the] different parts of the UNESCO Secretariat, both at
Headquarters and in field offices – and, not the least, I enjoy being in active contact with the research
community around the world. I also like working with a nice team of colleagues. Finally, working with
historical contents and historical research questions in this ‘transnational’ environment is highly
stimulating; as an archivist you are at the crossroads, you are placed where creators and users of potentially
interesting records and archives meet.
The worst aspects include that I have to deal with a lot of administrative issues, which can some times be
painstakingly exhausting! I’m not certain Max Weber would have been enthusiastic about the kind of
bureaucracy you some times encounter in an international organization; Albert Cohen (if you have read his
Belle du Seigneur?) could have found lots of stuff for a new novel… Other negative aspects can be lack of
understanding of the importance of managing, preserving and making available historical archives; this can
become particularly serious and frustrating when this lack of understanding exist within senior
management. Fortunately, at UNESCO there is also a lot of support for archives and records management
at a very senior level of the Organization, so the situation is not that bad: I’m simply saying that we
sometimes have to face problems of this kind.
What particular challenges does administering an archive for an international institution present,
especially compared to the archives of nation-states? How has UNESCO, briefly, tried to
overcome those challenges?
The challenge is mainly the nature of the archival collections and the coexistence of many different
cultures within the Organization.
As to the contents of the holdings, they include a vast amount of ‘official documents’, which can be
difficult for researchers to decipher, in particular due to the attempts to obtain consensus and the use of
12
diplomatic language. Therefore, the need to complement with other sources (for example national
archives) is even more important in an international organisation than in a national context. Furthermore,
the influence of different administrative cultures also has an impact on the organization of records and
archives and can make it more difficult to use the holdings. Finally, our potential users come from all over
the world – since we are supposed to serve states and citizens from all Member States (which more or less
means everybody). This means that access issues are particularly important for us: it’s not only a practical
matter – people who would have to travel from far away to consult the archives – but also political, in the
sense that, as far as possible, we should try to avoid privileging citizens from the host country. In order to
overcome these challenges, UNESCO has made considerable efforts to make past and present documents
available on line, through our documentary database, UNESDOC.12 More than 125,000 documents, as of
1945, are available here, most in full text versions (if not, they are at least described). We also try to have a
user-friendly archives website.13
I think it must be stressed, also, that UNESCO is different from other international bodies in the sense
that the Organization itself, as part of its mandate, has a vocation to work for archives in the world –
which it has done in many different ways over the years and is still doing through the Memory of the
World programme, for example.14 Finally, the UNESCO Archives has as one of its priorities to facilitate
research for students and scholars from around the world. In addition to what is already mentioned we do
this by responding to queries (emails, telephone, etc.) and welcoming researchers in our Reading Room.
What, now, do UNESCO's archives do very well, and what needs improving to help historians to
do their work? What can historians do to help UNESCO?
We have been quite successful with our electronic records management activity since 2004, the idea being
to capture the digital memory of the Organization in a structured way. But there is a lot of room for
progress. The UNESCO History Project has succeeded in recent years in stimulating research interest for
using the archives of the Organization. 15
Our biggest problem is lack of human resources. I think partnership agreements with universities and
research institutions around the world and special activities encouraging scientific networks that include
PhD students, both intellectually and through the attribution of study grants, are areas where historians can
help. The important thing is that historians express an interest and make it clear to decision-makers, both
at a national and an international level, that the archives of these institutions are valuable and that public
access to them is important for [historical and] scientific research.
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/unesco/resources/publications/unesdoc-database/.
http://www.unesco.org/archives/new2010/index.html.
14 http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.phpURL_ID=1538&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html.
15 http://www.unesco.org/archives/multimedia/index.php?id_page=54.
12
13
13
How important are archives to building an institution's public identity, and therefore its
effectiveness in world affairs?
In most cases archives are not visible from outside, so in that literal and direct sense it is difficult to argue
that they play a major role for ‘building an institution’s public identity, and therefore its effectiveness in
world affairs’, as you put it. However, history in the sense of past activities and orientations, results and
shortcomings do constitute an essential part of an organization’s identity. Since archives are the traces of
the past, they are clearly important as evidence, as the backbone of historical constructions, which are the
organizations of today.
Furthermore, I think there is a huge and to a large extent underexploited potential in the archives, also
from this perspective. Just one example – there are thousands, of course. Archives can show how
UNESCO played a role in the fight against apartheid: this is an important historical fact that, if well
known, adds a dimension to the Organization’s image in the world today. I also think that institutions can
be more effective if they have good archives, which enable them both to be accountable for what they
have done in the past, and also quite simply to become aware of what they have done in their areas of
competence: when, why, where and how. The situation for organisations such as UNESCO, which act in
the field of ideas, is slightly different, because archives become an even more important tool to study
interactions, shifts in paradigms, development of new concepts, and ways of carrying out and monitoring
activities. In short, yes, potentially and mostly in a ‘hidden’ way, I think archives can be tremendously
significant in this respect.
Professor Rothschild drew attention in a 2008 article to early hopes that a ‘United Nations
Archive’ would in itself help to preserve peace and draw the world together. One, an American
writing in October 1945, wrote that
just as a national archival establishment, as the repository of a people's
experience as a nation, has often in the past served as an effective symbol of
nationalism, so a United Nations Archive would, as it comes to maturity,
with a permanent building and extensive holdings, serve as a potent symbol
of internationalism.16
Can those hopes (utopian ones?) still be fulfilled? Are they indeed desirable? Can we still cling to
the idea that shared archives might help the cause of peace?
Yes, I believe that sharing archives, trying to understand the past in transnational relations, including the
history of painful chapters, can be important contributions to work for sustainable peace and international
understanding. Basic examples are sharing of archives between peoples or countries, which are or recently
were in conflict – Israel-Palestine is an example. Searching [for] truth and justice is also an issue that can
lead to tensions or reconciliation with societies – archives on the Armenian genocide in Turkey is one
example, and more recent ones could relate to the crimes of Franco-Spain against its opponents or
Emma Rothschild, ‘The Archives of Universal History, Journal of World History, Vol. 19, No.3, pp. 375376.
16
14
archives revealing the [complicity] of the USA in massive human rights violations in Latin America in the
1970s.
UNESCO has worked in the spirit of facilitating knowledge on archives for the cause of peace in many
different ways. One example is the publication of sources on the history of different regions of the world,
publications that began in the 1950s and had as their purpose – just as the General History of Africa
project – to contribute to the ‘decolonization of the mind,’ giving back history (to a large extent through
the knowledge of archives) to the peoples who had been bereft of their history. 17 I personally believe that
confronting the truth at some stage in the history of relations between peoples and nations is essential to
arrive at lasting peace. Recent examples of reconciliation processes where archives play or can play a role
are Cambodia after Pol Pot, and Rwanda after the genocide.
This is a huge subject, of course, but I think the role of archives and history in this respect is absolutely
fundamental. There is an issue in numerous contexts of coming to terms with the past, not repeating past
crimes or mistakes, etc., and in particular in an era with information flooding I think archives (as evidence)
can play a crucial role. Again, the potential role of archives as a tool for overcoming xenophobia,
communitarianism, and nationalism is much bigger than the role they actually play today. So, yes, there is
still room for a legitimate and even necessary dream – although it would today come through in other ways
than in 1945, thanks to technological developments, in particular.
Although difficult in the short-term, will digitisation have a great effect on UNESCO's activities?
I do believe that there are considerable possibilities, for example as regards our multimedia (audiovisual)
archives. Already now we have been able to make a huge amount of text documents available. 18 The
audiovisual holdings would include audio-recordings, films and photos back to the origins of the
Organization: roughly estimated, 30,000 sound recordings (mostly UNESCO Radio broadcasts), 4,000
films and 100,000 photos. Combined with text documents, and with archival holdings elsewhere at both
national and international level, I think the digitisation and indexing (contextualisation) of significant parts
of this material could make a real difference, for UNESCO and for historians.
Can digitisation actually help to realise the utopian dreams I alluded to earlier, dating back to
Napoleon, of a ‘world archive’? Is UNESCO's Archives Portal one step towards this?
Yes, many different initiatives around the world reflect a trend in this direction, however diversified and
even confused the movement may look. Google, Europeana, the Internet Archive in San Francisco, the
World Digital Library and… Wikileaks! – these are all elements of a development towards a universally-,
and some times even instantly-shared ‘global archive’. 19 The UNESCO Archives Portal and the ‘Guide to
Archives of International Organizations’ are very modest contributions. 20
http://www.unesco.org/culture/africa/html_eng/index_en.html.
See above, question three.
19 ‘Europeana’, http://www.europeana.eu/portal/
Internet Archive, http://www.archive.org/
17
18
15
A number of methodological and ethical questions need to be addressed in this context. It would be an
illusion to believe that we are harmoniously moving towards a world with global free access to
information. However, the recent key role played by the social media in the popular movements in the
Arab world, the increased role of information as a key empowerment resource in societies in general, and
the growing popular demand for ‘the right to know’ help pushing in this ‘utopian’ direction. The
UNESCO Archives will certainly try to do our tiny bit wherever and whenever we can!
World Digital Library, http://www.wdl.org/en/
Wikileaks, http://www.wikileaks.ch/.
20 UNESCO Archives Portal, http://www.unesco-ci.org/cgi-bin/portals/archives/page.cgi?d=1
UNESCO’s ‘Guide to Archives of International Organizations’,
http://www.unesco.org/archives/sio/Eng/.
16
Historians and the Archives of Internationalism
http://www-histecon.kings.cam.ac.uk/internationalhistory/articles/in_search_of.htm
17
United Nations and International Organizations
The majority of international organizations in this guide are part of the United Nations system, however
independent they may appear in reality. The UN provides a list of all agencies reporting to it on its website,
and has made downloadable charts available. A more complete list of UN organizations is also maintained,
at the ‘Official Website Locator for the UN System of Organizations’.
Fully working out where the archives of certain agencies might be found – primarily those of agencies
reporting to the General Assembly and/or the Security Council – is difficult, though the rewards may be
significant. The best place to start for something that does not seem obvious is the United Nations
Archives and Records Management Section, for which contact details are provided below.
18
United Nations
http://archives.un.org/ARMS/
New York, USA
UNESCO/ICA Guide: http://www.unesco.org/archives/sio/Eng/presentation.php?idOrg=1030
Address:
ARMS FF-109
United Nations
New York, NY
USA 10017
Fax:
(00) 1-212-963-4414
E-mail:
arms@un.org
Hours:
Monday – Friday, 9am – 5pm
Closed:
Holidays (including UN holidays)
The archives of the United Nations, the United Nations Archives and Records Management Section
(UNARMS) is based at the UN site in New York. Access can be granted after contact with an archivist via
email, fax, or mail. Valid identification (ID Card, passport, driving license, etc.) is required for use of the
Reading Room.
The public can access files unclassified at the time of their creation; files more than twenty years old which
are declassified; and files fewer than twenty years not subject to classification on condition that the
originating office has given written consent.
UNARMS holds files relating to: UN Predecessor Organizations (International Penal and
Penitentiary Commission, 1893-1951; UN Information Organization, 1941-1946; UN War Crimes
Commission, 1943-1949; UN Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), 1943-1949; UN
Conference on International Organization, San Francisco, 1945; UN Preparatory Commission, 19451946); Secretariat Departments (including the Central Registry; the Office of the Secretary-General;
Office of Legal Affairs; Department of Economic and Social Affairs; Office of Public Information,
etc.); UN Missions, Commissions, Related (including UNEF, 1956-1967; UN Operation in the
Congo; and innumerable other missions); and UN Related Organizations, Agencies and Conferences
(including the UN Children’s Fund; the UN Development Programme (UNDP), and the UN Korean
Reconstruction Agency), which as of yet has no finding aids available.
For further files of interest, see throughout this guide. Of particular note will be the section on
‘Personalities of Internationalism’, particularly relating to the Secretaries-General, as well as the UN Office
at Geneva Archive (incorporating the League of Nations Archive)
19
Cameras are allowed in the Reading Room. Digital scans of documents (as .pdf files) are $1.50 per page,
plus $5 if a CD is required, plus a minimum of $5 postage for the US and Canada, and more for other
countries.
Finding Aids:
http://archives.un.org/ARMS/archival-fonds (downloadable .pdfs by topic)
Search:
http://archives-trim.un.org/test/TRIM-template.htm
FAQs:
http://archives.un.org/ARMS/a-z-researchers
http://archives.un.org/ARMS/node/40
Rules:
http://archives.un.org/ARMS/sites/ARMS/uploads/files/FF RR 2011.pdf
Declassification: http://archives.un.org/ARMS/access-declassification-requests
Citing:
http://archives.un.org/ARMS/citing -UN-Archives; PDF
20
UN Photo Library
http://www.unmultimedia.org/photo/photo_library.jsp
New York, USA
Address:
UN Photo Library
5th Floor, Room IN-506B
300 East 42nd Street
New York, NY
USA 10017
Mail Address:
UN Photo Library
Department of Public Information
Room S-805
New York, NY
USA 10017
Phone:
(00) 1-212-963-6927; (00) 1-212-963-0034
Fax:
(00) 1-212-963-1658
Email:
Contact form
Hours:
Monday – Friday, 10am – 3pm
Closed:
Holidays
The UN Photo Archive is based on and near the UN site in New York. Access is by permission only, by
appointment. The Archive (increasingly digitized) holds over 800,000 photographs and negatives, dating
from the mid-1940s onwards. Many photographs, especially from recent years, are available online at
http://www.unmultimedia.org/photo/.
21
UN Audio Library
http://www.unmultimedia.org/radio/library/about.html
New York, USA
Address:
UN Audio Library
Department of Public Information
5th Floor, Room IN-503C/D
300 East 42nd Street
New York, NY
USA 10017
Phone:
(00) 1-212-963-9513
Email:
Contact form
Hours:
Monday – Friday, 9.30am – 5.30pm
Closed:
Holidays
The UN Audio Library is based near the UN site in New York. Access is by permission only, by
appointment. The Library holds approximately 40,000 hours of digital files (available instantly online up to
two weeks after the event in question, and by request thereafter), and over 30,000 audio recordings in
other formats, from CDs to shellac discs.
Former programmes broadcast on UN Radio can be found at
http://www.unmultimedia.org/radio/library/classics/.
22
UN Video and Film Collection
http://www.unmultimedia.org/tv/archives.html
New York, USA
Address:
Multimedia Resources Unit
Visual Material Library
Department of Public Information
Room S2B-66
United Nations
New York, NY
USA 10017
Fax:
(00) 1-212-963-4501
Email:
gonzalezm@un.org; teza@un.org
The UN Film and Video Archives are mostly designed to help filmmakers, but can also be accessed by
scholars. The holdings including UNTV coverage, UN programmes, and raw footage from field
operations. Major series include: the League of Nations; coverage of the work of UNRRA, especially in
Europe between 1945 and 1947; Security Council and General Assembly meetings and special events;
worldwide field activities, especially regarding development and peacekeeping; and various thematic and
historical compilations.
Researchers have access to card catalogues (1945-1986) and various databases (1987-), but only onsite.
Service fees are charged.
23
United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG)
http://www.unog.ch/80256EE60057D930/%28httpPages%29/BB9628CFC1EA7B3EC1256F800056230
5?OpenDocument
Geneva, Switzerland
UNESCO/ICA Guide: http://www.unesco.org/archives/sio/Eng/presentation.php?idOrg=1035.
Address:
UNOG Library
UNOG Archives
Palais des Nations
CH–1211 Geneva 10
Switzerland
Phone:
General Enquiries:
(00) 41 22 917 41 81
UNOG Enquiries:
(00) 41 22 917 27 81
Fax:
(00) 41 22 917 06 67
Email:
libraryarchives@unog.ch; Contact form
Hours:
Library:
Monday – Friday, 8.30am – 5.30pm
Archives Reading Room: Monday – Friday, 9am – 12am, 2pm – 5pm
Closed:
Holidays and UN holidays
The UNOG Archive is not held in the UNOG Library. It is situated in the Secretariat wing of the Palais
des Nations, on the first underground level at Door 6, Office PN 080.
Readers should contact the library before arrival. All readers must have valid ID (ID card, passport, driving
license, etc.), a student card, and a letter of recommendation from their university or research institute.
Notes on how to get to the library can be found here.
The Archives contains three collections: the UNOG Registry Collection (1946-1973); the UNOG Registry
Collection (1973- ); and the Records Retirement Collections (1946- ). The latter covers records of the
UNOG Secretariat; the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights; the Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs; the United Nations Conference on Trade and
Development; and the Conference on Disarmament. Resource guides are available onsite, and a fuller
list of holdings can be found here.
Online Catalogue:
http://biblio-archive.unog.ch/suchinfo.aspx
‘How to’ for Online Catalogue:
http://www.unog.ch/80256EE60057D930/%28httpPages%29/
D8C869E342F8D3EDC12570C000572B2D?OpenDocument
24
League of Nations
http://www.unog.ch/80256EE60057D930/%28httpPages%29/775F57EE7B39FC0D80256EF8005048A
6?OpenDocument
Geneva, Switzerland
UNESCO/ICA Guide: http://www.unesco.org/archives/sio/Eng/presentation.php?idOrg=1024
Address:
UNOG Library
League of Nations Archives
Palais des Nations
CH–1211 Geneva 10
Switzerland
Phone:
General Enquiries:
(00) 41 22 917 41 81
League Enquiries:
(00) 41 22 917 41 93
Fax:
(00) 41 22 917 07 46
Email:
libraryarchives@unog.ch; Contact form
Hours:
Library:
Monday – Friday, 8.30am – 5.30pm
Archives Reading Room: Monday – Friday, 8.30am – 12.30pm, 1.30pm – 5.30pm
Closed:
Holidays and UN holidays
The League of Nations Archives Reading Room is located on the third floor of the UNOG Library, in
room B 332. Readers should contact the library before arrival. All readers must have valid ID (ID card,
passport, driving license, etc.), a student card, and a letter of recommendation from their university or
research institute. Notes on how to get to the library can be found here.
The archive contains 3,000 linear metres records of the League as well as peace movements and
international relations from the end of the nineteenth century onwards. It contains the original files of the
Secretariat and the files of the Commission, included files concerning the Financial Reconstruction of
Austria and Hungary; the Saar Governing Commission; the Mixed Commission for the Exchange of
Greek and Turkish Populations; the Upper Silesia Mixed Commission; the Refugees Mixed
Archives Group; and the files of the Economic and Financial Section of the Secretariat based at
Princeton. It also contains private papers of officials and delegates, including Secretaries-General, as well as
those of peace campaigners and the International Peace Bureau. The archive also holds documents and
official publications of the League, as well as working papers and minutes,
The archive holds a visual collection documenting peace movements; League personalities, delegates,
actions, and the Palais des Nations; caricatures and posters; and the original interior designs of the Palais
des Nations. An online League photo database can be found at http://www.indiana.edu/~league/.
Online Catalogue:
http://biblio-archive.unog.ch/suchinfo.aspx; ‘How to’ Guide
25
UNESCO
http://www.unesco.org/archives/new2010/index.html
Paris, France
UNESCO/SIO Guide: http://www.unesco.org/archives/sio/Eng/presentation.php?idOrg=1031
Address:
UNESCO Archives
7, Place de Fontenoy
75352 Paris 07 SP
France
Phone:
(00) 33 1 45 68 19 49/55
Fax:
(00) 33 1 45 68 56 17
Email:
archives@unesco.org
Hours:
Monday – Friday, 9.30am – 1pm, 2pm – 5pm
Closed:
Holidays, Fridays in 2011
Transport:
Metros 6 (Cambronne), 8 (Ecole Militaire), 10 (Segur); Buses 28, 87
The UNESCO Archive is held at UNESCO in Paris. A registration form must be sent by email, and an
appointment made for a first visit to the archives: photo ID must be brought for entrance via the main
UNESCO lobby.
Many files are constantly being made available online via UNESCO’s digitization project. The physical
archives stretch over 10,000 metres, and include not only the records of UNESCO, but the International
Institute for Intellectual Cooperation, and UNESCO’s formal predecessors. It also holds nearly 4,000
films, 200,000 photographs, and 30,000 radio tapes. Field records are ordinarily kept at the field office in
question, but the UNESCO archive holds the records of the UNESCO Research Center on Social and
Economic Development in Southern Asia; the UNESCO Regional Office for Latin America and the
Caribbean; the Middle East Science Co-operation Office; the UNESCO School Building Institutes; the
International Institute of Educational Planning; the UNESCO Liaison Office with the UN Economic
Commission in Africa; the Washington and Venice Offices; and many more.
The UNESCO History Project was founded in 2004: a list of research already completed is hosted at
UNESDOC.
Collection description:
http://www.unesco.org/archives/new2010/en/
research_strategy.html
AtoM (archival descriptions):
http://atom.archives.unesco.org/;informationobject/browse
Finding aid (clickable .pdf):
http://www.unesco.org/archives/files/finding_aids.pdf
26
United Nations Peacekeeping
http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/operations/history.shtml
The archives for individual peacekeeping missions are ad hoc. Some, for concluded missions, are held at
UNARMS, others by individual field offices, and other possibly in private hands.
The best advice is to find the website of the individual mission in question, and contact them directly.
Potential researchers should be aware that, given the vast increase in the number of peacekeeping missions
after the end of the Cold War, many files will not yet be declassified under the twenty-year rule.
UNARMS:
http://archives.un.org/ARMS/Records-UN-Missions-Commissions-related
27
UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49da066c6.html
Geneva, Switzerland
UNESCO/ICA Guide: http://www.unesco.org/archives/sio/Eng/presentation.php?idOrg=1032
Address:
UNHCR Archives
94 Rue de Montbrillant
CH–1202 Geneva
Switzerland
Phone:
(00) 41 22 739 81 11 (switchboard)
Email:
archives@unhcr.org
Hours:
Monday – Friday, 9am – 1pm
The archives of the UNHCR maintain an outstanding website, through which all necessary information
can be found. There is an interview, from 2008, with a senior archivist, who provides some background on
the archive: it can be found here.
The archives are split into three sections, all detailed folder by folder on the website with links to individual
finding aids: the Headquarters Fonds, in which even more interesting files up to 1970 have recently been
declassified in Fonds 11; the Field Fonds, containing reports from field offices around the world; and the
External Fonds, containing some private papers and files relating to other UN agencies.
In order to protect privacy, especially that of individual refugees, all files are closed by default, but opened
on application according to the access policy. Files are reviewed by UNHCR archival staff before research
is allowed. To use the files, and before visiting the library, researchers must fill in the Document Request
Form, indicating material in order of priority, and simultaneously complete a Research Application Form.
These must be sent to the archives with proposed dates of research, with at least two weeks’s notice.
Research Regulations:
http://www.unhcr.org/4c2b092d9.html
28
UNICEF
http://www.cf-hst.net/UNICEF-TEMP/CF-hst redesign/archives.htm
New York, USA
UNESCO/SIO Guide: http://www.unesco.org/archives/sio/Eng/presentation.php?idOrg=1033
Address:
UNICEF Records and Archive Management Unit
UNICEF House
3 United Nations Plaza
New York, NY
USA 10017
Phone:
(00) 1-212-326-7064
Email:
uyoung@unicef.org
The UNICEF archive holds records in Long Island City, Secaucus in New Jersey, and a few at UNICEF
House in New York. Files operate under the same classification system as UN files, but ‘reasonable’
requests to view files fewer than twenty years old are usually approved.
There are few online finding aids, though there is a guide to UNICEF documents. The database of
archived files, RAMP, is accessible only at UNICEF itself.
Researchers must apply by email to use the archives, including, where applicable: the nature of research;
institution name; degree sought; previous records consulted; publications; topics to be searched for in the
UNICEF RAMP database; dates of material sought; contact details; and potential dates for visiting
UNICEF in New York.
When visiting the archives, a Researcher Application Form must be filled in.
Researcher Guidelines:
http://www.cf-hst.net/UNICEF-TEMP/CF-hst redesign/researcherguidlines.doc
29
UN–HABITAT
http://www.unhabitat.org/categories.asp?catid=1
Nairobi, Kenya
Address:
Information Management Unit
Information Services Section
United Nations Settlement Programme
UN–HABITAT
PO Box 30030-00100
Nairobi, Kenya
Phone:
Operator:
(00) 254 20 7621234
Information Services:
(00) 254 20 7623120
Fax:
Information Services:
(00) 254 20 7623477
Email:
hellen.nyabera@unhabitat.org
UN-HABITAT is the UN agency responsible for human settlement. It is mandated by the General
Assembly to promote socially and environmentally sustainable urban settlements, with the ultimate goal of
providing adequate shelter for all.
The current UN-HABITAT Archives and Records Management policy was approved in 2007, and the
organisation is still in the process of instigating an archive. Many of the records have been appraised, but
no archive is yet described, and there is as of yet no finding aid.
However, scholars interested in working on UN-HABITAT can contact the organisation, as paper archives
are stored centrally, and information is provided to individuals on request as long as the records have
reached their public viewing date.
30
United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO)
http://www.unido.org/index.php?id=7845
Vienna, Austria
Address:
Vienna International Center
Wagramerstrasse 5
P.O. Box 300
A–1400 Vienna
Austria
Phone:
(00) 43 1 260260 (switchboard)
Fax:
(00) 43 1 2692669
Email:
unido@unido.org
The archives of UNIDO are held at the organisation’s Vienna headquarters. There is almost no access to
scholars, mainly for technical cooperation projects, and some financial and procurement documents.
There are no specific contact details with which researchers might contact the archives. Individual requests
can be received through the main UNIDO email address. A separate request would likely also have to be
sent to General Support Services for prior approval.
However, researchers should also check the new feature on the UNIDO website called ‘Industrial
Development Abstracts’. This contains many unpublished documents, and may be of some assistance.
31
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
http://www.fao.org/library/library-home/en/
Rome, Italy
UNESCO/SIO Guide: http://www.unesco.org/archives/sio/Eng/presentation.php?idOrg=1011
Address:
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Archives
CSAI D-123
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla
SNC 001153 Roma
Italy
Phone:
(00) 39 06 5705 2832, (00) 39 06 5705 2289
Fax:
(00) 39 06 5705 4057
Email:
archives@fao.org
Hours:
Monday – Friday, 9am – 4pm
Closed:
Holidays
The FAO Archive is currently closed for registry restructuring
The FAO Archives are located in FAO Headquarters, and have been maintained by the Records and
Archives Unit since 1957. It possesses around 3,800 linear metres of files, 25,000 microfilms, and audiovisual material. The archive has no dedicated website, so it is best to use the UNESCO/SIO page for
further information and a list of fonds, or to contact the archive directly.
Upon request, the archive can provide finding aids relating to the major fonds: either for a specific
Division of the FAO, or for subjects covering 1945-1964. Researchers who contact the archive in advance
are able to access most files, given the demonstration of a legitimate interest, and the provision of
appropriate professional credentials and two letters of introduction from their institution. Files are
available 15 years after they have been closed, where special restrictions do not apply.
32
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
http://www.iaea.org/About/history.html
Vienna, Austria
UNESCO/SIO Guide: http://www.unesco.org/archives/sio/Eng/presentation.php?idOrg=1013
Address:
Mr. Leopold Kammerhofer
International Atomic Energy Agency
MTGS/Archives and Records Management Section
Archives Unit
P.O. Box 100
A–1400 Vienna
Austria
Phone:
(00) 43 1 2600 21191; (00) 43 1 2600 23030
Email:
archives@iaea.org
Hours:
Monday – Friday, 8.30am – 5.30pm
The archives of the International Atomic Energy Agency hold files dating back to the agency’s
founding in 1957. It also holds sound recordings from 1946 onwards (from the UN Atomic Energy
Commission), and films from 1957. The files cover all of the IAEA’s activities.
There is, as of yet, no website for the archives, though the UNESCO/SIO page is soon to be updated.
Researchers may have access to the IAEA files under a forty-year rule. Access is by appointment only at
the archive in Vienna: researchers should contact the archives directly for further information. Finding aids
and databases are available onsite.
Some information is online, and unpublished documents may be available soon.
Published documents:
http://www.iaea.org/About/Policy/GC/GC01/Documents/index.html
Historical photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/iaea_imagebank/collections/
72157626447870110/
33
International Labour Organization (ILO)
http://www.ilo.org/public/english/support/lib/about/index.htm;
http://www.ilo.org/public/english/century/information_resources/ilo_archives.htm
Geneva, Switzerland
UNESCO/SIO Guide: http://www.unesco.org/archives/sio/Eng/presentation.php?idOrg=1019
Address:
Historical Archives
International Labour Office (ILO)
4, Routes des Morillons
CH 1211 Geneva 22
Switzerland
Phone:
General:
(00) 41 22 799 81 06
Reading Room: (00) 41 22 799 78 57
Fax:
(00) 41 22 798 86 85
Email:
archives@ilo.org
Hours:
Monday – Friday, 9am – 12am, 2pm – 5pm (by appointment only): Room R2-38
Closed:
Holidays
The ILO Archives serve as a repository for both Headquarters and Field Offices. They are accessible after
thirty years, with permission from the Archives and after contact has been made.
The Archives contain around 70,000 files pre-1947, and over 200,000 files up to 1978. There are also
special collections for each of the ILO’s Directors and Directors-General, as well as the private papers of
C. Wilfred Jenks, photographic and audiovisual collections, and the records of the International Labour
Office (Basel, 1890-1919). The ILO Library also has a strong collection of historical books and records on
labour.
The ILO has begun its own History Project, the ILO Century Project, which has held meetings and started
and Oral History Project. The Archives have also assembled a photographic history of the ILO, entitled
‘Seeking Peace by Cultivating Justice: A photographic history of the ILO’, downloadable as a .pdf.
The ILO Library also maintains a selective bibliography of works written about the organisation.
Historical Collections:
http://www.ilo.org/public/english/support/lib/about/collect/historical.htm
34
International Court of Justice (ICJ)
Permanent Court of International Justice (PCIJ)
Archives of the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal
http://www.icj-cij.org/registry/index.php?p1=2&p2=4&p3=0
The Hague, The Netherlands
UNESCO/SIO Guide: http://www.unesco.org/archives/sio/Eng/presentation.php?idOrg=1016
Address:
The Registrar
International Court of Justice
Peace Palace
Carnegieplein 2
2517 KJ The Hague
The Netherlands
Phone:
(00) 31 70 302 23 23
Fax:
(00) 31 70 364 99 28
Contact form:
http://www.icj-cij.org/homepage/mail.php
The Library and Archives of the International Court of Justice are closed to the public, and access from
‘outsiders’ is absolutely forbidden.
The Archives of the International Military Tribunal of Nuremberg consist of film footage, written
documents, recordings of the hearings, and so on. These archives are open to the public: a request (in
English or French) should be addressed to the Registrar of the Court.
The Archives of the Permanent Court of International Justice, the forerunner of the ICJ which
operated between 1922 and 1946, are all available for download online at http://www.icjcij.org/pcij/index.php?p1=9.
35
International Monetary Fund (IMF)
http://www.imf.org/external/np/arc/eng/archive.htm#visiting
Washington, D.C., USA
UNESCO/SIO Guide: http://www.unesco.org/archives/sio/Eng/presentation.php?idOrg=1020
Address:
International Monetary Fund
Archives and Records Management
Room CN-200
700 19th St., NW
Washington, D.C.
USA 20431
Phone:
(00) 1-202-623-4913
Fax:
(00) 1-202-623-7175
Email:
archives@imf.org
Hours:
Monday – Friday, 9.30am – 12.30pm, 1.30pm – 4.45pm
Closed:
IMF Holidays
The IMF Archive is held at IMF Headquarters in Washington, D.C.. The archives hold a wide range of
materials, including institutional and audiovisual files. There is also a collection on the Bretton Woods
conference of 1944, mostly composed of American views.
At least 10 days in advance of a visit, which must be scheduled in consultation with the IMF, researchers
must contact the archive in English only, giving details of the research subject and the files to be consulted.
Researchers must present a valid photo ID.
Photocopying is not possible in the archive, and visitors are strongly advised to bring a digital camera (a
stand is provided to aid this). Visitors without a camera can use the archives’ own, but must bring their
own AA batteries (4). Digitized documents can be found be downloading the appropriate finding aid and,
if available, clicking the link.
Holdings:
http://www.imf.org/external/np/arc/eng/archive.htm#description
Illustrative topics:
http://www.imf.org/external/np/arc/eng/archive.htm#illustrative
Finding aids (.pdfs):
http://www.imf.org/external/np/arc/eng/fa/fa.htm
Finding aids FAQs:
http://www.imf.org/external/np/arc/eng/fa/faq.htm
Access policy:
http://www.imf.org/external/np/arc/eng/archive.htm#access
36
World Bank Group
http://go.worldbank.org/GGMLF575S0
Washington, D.C., USA
UNESCO/SIO Guide: http://www.unesco.org/archives/sio/Eng/presentation.php?idOrg=1040
Address:
The World Bank Group
Archives
1818 H Street, NW
Washington, D.C.
USA 20433
Phone:
(00) 1-202-473-2841
Fax:
(00) 1-202-477-1499
Hours:
Monday – Friday, 10am – 4.30pm (by appointment only)
The World Bank Archive is held at the headquarters of the World Bank in Washington, D.C.. Files
extend to over 193,000 linear feet, including lending project files, country files, sector and policy studies,
oral histories, and audiovisual materials.
Researchers are required, before visiting, to fill in an Access to Information Request Form, which will
receive a preliminary response within five days, and a more detailed response within twenty days.
About:
http://go.worldbank.org/AVHSPM46P0
Finding aids:
Alphabetical:
http://go.worldbank.org/7WIP106QV0
Numerical:
http://go.worldbank.org/P24EQN7670
FAQs:
http://go.worldbank.org/8RCS0Z7620
1996 Report and .pdf bibliography of files: .pdf
Rules:
http://go.worldbank.org/WLPWX48400
Access rules:
http://go.worldbank.org/TRCDVYJ440
37
Bank for International Settlements (BIS)
http://www.bis.org/about/archive.htm
Basel, Switzerland
Address:
Applications:
BIS Archive
Bank for International Settlements
CH-4002 Basel
Switzerland
Reading room: BIS Tower
Centralbahnplatz 2
CH-4051 Basel
Switzerland
Phone:
(00) 41 61 280 8061; (00) 41 61 280 8281
Fax:
(00) 41 61 280 9100; (00) 41 61 280 8100
Email:
archive@bis.org
Hours:
Monday – Friday, 9am – 12.30pm, 2pm – 5.30pm (by appointment only)
The archives of the Bank for International Settlements, set up in 1930, are held in Basel and operate
under a thirty-year rule. Only two researchers are allowed access to the files at any given time, and then
solely if they are working on the same project. For access, potential researchers should apply to the mailing
address given, with the names, addresses, and telephone numbers of two referees, one of whom (if
appropriate) should be a thesis supervisor. Valid photo ID will then be required on arrival, if access is
granted.
Access:
http://www.bis.org/about/usingarchive.htm
Finding aid:
http://www.bis.org/about/arch_guide.pdf
38
World Health Organization (WHO)
http://www.who.int/archives/en/
Geneva, Switzerland
UNESCO/SIO Guide: http://www.unesco.org/archives/sio/Eng/presentation.php?idOrg=1037
Address:
World Health Organization
Records and Archives
Avenue Appia 20
1211 Geneva 27
Switzerland
Phone:
(00) 41 22 791 21 11 (switchboard)
Fax:
(00) 41 22 791 31 11 (switchboard)
Hours:
Monday – Friday, 9am – 12am, 2pm – 4pm
The archives of the World Health Organization are based in Geneva. Access is by written request, by
filling in the Electronic research/information request form.
The Archives contain documents from the WHO’s history as well as the League of Nations Health Section
(copies of files held at the League of Nations Archive in Geneva), sound recordings, videos, stamps, and
oral histories. There is also potential for contact with WHO’s regional offices, both through the central
archives and the offices themselves.
The WHO archives maintain an excellent website, and scholars are advised to consult it before making
further enquiries.
Fonds:
http://www.who.int/archives/fonds_collections/bytitle/en/index.html
(some with online finding aids)
Special collections:
http://www.who.int/archives/fonds_collections/special/en/index.html
Fonds by theme:
http://www.who.int/archives/fonds_collections/bysubject/en/index.html
Photo galleries:
http://www.who.int/archives/exhibits/galleries/en/index.html
Links:
http://www.who.int/archives/links/en/
Regional offices:
http://www.who.int/about/regions/en/index.html
39
World Trade Organization (WTO)
http://www.wto.org/english/res_e/booksp_e/library_e/library_e.htm
Geneva, Switzerland
UNESCO/SIO Guide: http://www.unesco.org/archives/sio/Eng/presentation.php?idOrg=1041
40
International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
http://www.itu.int/library/
Geneva, Switzerland
UNESCO/SIO Guide: http://www.unesco.org/archives/sio/Eng/presentation.php?idOrg=1022
Address:
International Telecommunication Union
Library and Archives Service
Place des Nations
CH–1211 Geneva 20
Switzerland
Phone:
(00) 41 22 730 67 70
Fax:
(00) 41 22 730 53 26
Email:
archives@itu.int
Hours:
Monday – Friday, 9am – 5pm
The archives of the International Telecommunication Union hold material dating back to 1865, and are
held at the ITU headquarters at the Place des Nations in Geneva. The Reading Room is on the sixth floor
of the Montbrillant building, and valid ID is required for entry. Potential researchers should fill in a
Researcher Registration Form at least one week prior to arrival. Access is by appointment only.
Researchers unable to travel to Geneva, or requiring minimal documents, should fill in the Reference
Request Form.
The archive’s documents are held under a 30-year rule. There is no online finding aid, but the holdings
document the activities and administration of the ITU, and include a series of world and regional maps
showing the extent of telecommunications networks between 1875 and 1930.
The ITU has begun a history project, the ITU History Portal, which showcases some digitized documents.
Access rules:
http://www.itu.int/library/Requests/Access_archives.html
ITU News article:
http://www.itu.int/library/BIBAR_ITU-NEWS_article-E.pdf
41
International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)
http://www.icao.int/icao/en/adb/wla/libinfo.htm
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
UNESCO/SIO Guide: http://www.unesco.org/archives/sio/Eng/presentation.php?idOrg=1015
Address:
International Civil Aviation Organization
999 University Street
H3C 5H7 Montreal, Quebec
Canada
Phone:
(00) 1 514 954 8219 (switchboard)
Fax:
(00) 1 514 954 6077
Email:
icaohq@icao.int; jbello@icao.int (Registry and Archives Unit)
Hours:
Monday – Friday, 9am – 5pm
The archives of the International Civil Aviation Organization, as well as the Provisional International
Civil Aviation Organization, are held at ICAO headquarters. They include all ICAO publications, as well as
unpublished documentation, and a large collection of photographs, maps, and charts.
Potential researchers are advised to contact the ICAO direct, in advance of any visit: all requests for access
and help with scholarship are dealt with on an ad hoc basis.
42
World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
http://www.wipo.int/library/en/index.html
Geneva, Switzerland
UNESCO/SIO Guide:
Address:
http://www.unesco.org/archives/sio/Eng/presentation.php?idOrg=1038
35, Chemin des Colombettes
1211 Geneva 20
Switzerland
Phone:
(00) 41 22 338 8573
Fax:
(00) 41 22 338 8590
Email:
Contact form
Hours:
Monday – Friday, 9am – 6pm
In addition to 35,000 monographs relating to intellectual property rights, the WIPO Library also holds an
historical collection. This details international conferences – perhaps back to the signing of the Berne
Convention – with minutes, and so on. Potential researchers are advised to contact the library directly.
Many of the files relating to WIPO have been looked after by the Swiss government. Though WIPO is the
best place to find out more, a link to the Swiss Federal Archive is provided below.
Swiss Federal Archive:
http://www.bar.admin.ch/org/index.html?lang=en
Hours:
http://www.bar.admin.ch/archivgut/00941/00942/index.html?lang=en
43
The Commonwealth
http://www.thecommonwealth.org/Internal/157082/archives/
London, United Kingdom
UNESCO/SIO Guide: http://www.unesco.org/archives/sio/Eng/presentation.php?idOrg=1044
Address:
Archivist
Commonwealth Secretariat
Marlborough House
Pall Mall
London
SW1Y 5HX
UK
Phone:
(00) 44 207 747 6167
Fax:
(00) 44 207 747 6168
Email:
h.mcewan@commonwealth.int; Contact form
Hours:
Monday – Friday, 10am – 4.45pm (by appointment only)
Closed:
UK holidays, Commonwealth Day
The archives of the Commonwealth Secretariat are held at Marlborough House, the headquarters of the
Commonwealth. Access is by appointment only, having contacted the archive. Photocopying facilities are
provided at 10p per page, and whilst there are two computers with internet access, laptops (which are
welcome) will not be able to access it.
The archives operate under the UK’s 30-year rule for releasing papers. Though there is no online finding
aid for the entire collection, each year a finding aid for that year’s new releases is created and posted online.
The archive also holds the papers of the Commonwealth’s first two Secretaries-General, Arnold Smith and
Sir Shridath Ramphal. These papers have finding aids online. The Commonwealth Library has further
literature of interest, including rare book.
Files released by year:
http://www.thecommonwealth.org/doclist/191529/157082/
167699/records_of_the_commonwealth_secretariat_1965/
Library catalogue:
http://www.thecommonwealth.org/Internal/191529/175112/collections/
Visiting:
http://www.thecommonwealth.org/Internal/191529/175738/visiting_us/
Contact:
http://www.thecommonwealth.org/form/191529/175145/contact/
44
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
http://www.nato.int/archives/
Brussels, Belgium
UNESCO/SIO Guide: http://www.unesco.org/archives/sio/Eng/presentation.php?idOrg=1026
Address:
NATO Archives
Boulevard Léopold III
Evere
1110 Brussels
Belgium
Phone:
(00) 32 2 707 4220
Fax:
(00) 32 2 707 5509
Email:
nato.archives@hq.nato.int
Hours:
Monday – Friday, 9am – 12.30pm, 2pm – 5.30pm (3.30pm Fridays)
Closed:
Holidays
The NATO archives are based in NATO headquarters in Brussels. The archives operate under a 30-year
rule, and access is by appointment only, either by email/post and a .pdf, or by filling in an online form,
stating the intention of a visit and prospective dates. Upon receiving a reply, the reader must bring it and
valid ID to the reading room. A temporary pass will be issued.
NATO documents of high importance can be found in the ‘Official Texts’ section of the archives’
homepage. Files available in the archives currently run up to 1974, and document NATO’s military,
administrative, and diplomatic history.
Reading Room:
http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/75465.htm
Available documents:
http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/75469.htm
RR finding aids:
http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/75498.htm
Online finding aids:
http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/75501.htm (.pdfs)
Disclosure policy:
http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/75504.htm
Computer rules:
http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/75489.htm
News/photo archive:
http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/68944.htm
45
Organization of American States (OAS)
http://www.oas.org/columbus/
Washington, D.C., USA
Address:
Columbus Memorial Library
19th Street & Columbus Ave. NW
Washington, D.C. 20006-4499
Phone:
(00) 1 202 458 3000 (switchboard)
(00) 1 202 458 3973 (archives)
Email:
Contact form
Hours:
Monday – Thursday, 9.30am – 4.30pm; Friday, 1.30pm – 4.30pm
Closed:
US holidays
The Columbus Memorial Library, housed in the Administration Building of the Organization of
American States, holds treaties, agreements, minutes of meetings, agenda, and documents from the
General Secretariat of the OAS. The library also holds all published documents produced by the OAS.
Records also document international organizations dating from before the founding of the OAS (1948),
including the International Union of American Republics (from 1889) and the Pan-American Union
(1910). Other contents include the personal papers of Leo S. Rowe, chief of the Pan-American Union
from 1920 to 1946; papers of multilateral technical agencies; 45,000 photographs; and over 3,000 maps and
atlases, dating from the 1700s.
There are, unfortunately, no details about registration on the library’s website. However, potential
researchers should contact the library in advance of a visit as a matter of course.
Ask-a-librarian:
http://www.oas.org/columbus/asklibrarian.asp
Collections:
http://www.oas.org/columbus/collections.asp
Archives:
http://www.oas.org/columbus/archives.asp
General contact:
http://www.oas.org/en/contactus.asp
46
European Integration
All files relating to the EU are governed by a 30-year rule. All EU institutions have their own archives: a
page of links can be found at
http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/secretariat_general/archives_services/index_en.htm.
The most useful point of entry for research in European archives is the Council of the European Union’s
‘Blue Guide’, constructed with the help of member states’ foreign offices, and the European civil service. It
is suggested that the information here is used in conjunction with the Guide.
Historical Archives of the European Union
http://www.eui.eu/Research/HistoricalArchivesOfEU/Index.aspx
Florence, Italy
UNESCO/SIO Guide: http://www.unesco.org/archives/sio/Eng/presentation.php?idOrg=1012
Address:
Historical Archives of the European Union
Villa Il Poggiolo
Piazza Edison 11
50133 Firenze
Italy
Phone:
(00) 39 055 4685 620
Email:
archiv@eui.eu
Hours:
Monday – Friday, 8.30am – 5pm
Closed:
Holiday periods
Transport:
How to reach us
The Historical Archives of the European Union are held at the European University Institute in
Florence, Italy. Access is available to documents over 30 years old from the EU’s predecessor
organizations, including the European Coal and Steel Community, the Common Market, and Euratom.
There is also a substantial collection of oral histories on European integration, and of personal papers of
‘European’ personalities (especially Italians).
Researchers should, preferably, contact the archive in advance of arrival, though this is not strictly
necessary. Photocopies are €0.10, and digital cameras may be used by request; internet is provided for use
with laptops. Researchers are obliged to donate a free copy of resulting work to the library.
These archives preserve the original copies of all European Union (etc.) documents after the 30-year rule
has expired. Copies are held by the individual organisations.
47
Regulations:
http://www.eui.eu/Research/HistoricalArchivesOfEU/
AbouttheHistoricalArchives/RegulationsConsultation.aspx
Access policy:
http://www.eui.eu/Research/HistoricalArchivesOfEU/
AbouttheHistoricalArchives/AccessPolicy.aspx
News:
http://www.eui.eu/Research/HistoricalArchivesOfEU/NewsAboutFonds/Index.aspx
Finding aids:
http://www.eui.eu/Research/HistoricalArchivesOfEU/
FindingAidsAndResearch/Index.aspx
Fonds:
http://www.eui.eu/HAEU/EN/listone.asp
Oral histories:
http://www.eui.eu/HAEU/EN/OralHistory.asp
Links:
http://www.eui.eu/Research/HistoricalArchivesOfEU/UsefulLinks.aspx
FAQs:
http://www.eui.eu/Research/HistoricalArchivesOfEU/FAQs.aspx
48
European Parliament
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/parliament/archive/staticDisplay.do?id=191&language=EN
Luxembourg
UNESCO/SIO Guide: http://www.unesco.org/archives/sio/Eng/presentation.php?idOrg=1006
Address:
European Parliament
Archive and Documentation Centre (CARDOC)
Kirchberg European Centre
Schuman Building (Ground Floor)
L-2929 Luxembourg
Phone:
(00) 352 4300 23125; (00) 352 4300 27561; (00) 352 4300 22109
Email:
arch-info@europarl.europa.eu
Hours:
Monday – Thursday, 9am – 12am, 2pm – 5pm; Friday, 9am – 12.30pm
The archives of the European Parliament document the body’s activities between 1952 and 1999.
Potential visitors must apply for authorisation to view documents at least one week before the start of a
proposed visit. Applications should send a copy of a passport, a CV, and a letter stating the subject of the
study in question, the applicant’s place of employment, and the dates proposed to:
European Parliament
Traineeships Office
Kirchberg European Centre
PRE 03B026
L-2929 Luxembourg
(00) 352 4300 24882
stages@europarl.europa.eu
The archives service allows researchers to use its computers and printers, photocopiers, fax machines,
scanners, and microform scanners. Many documents are available online once researchers are at
CARDOC.
The archives hold the papers, minutes, and resolutions of the ESCS Common Assembly, the European
Parliament before direct elections, and the European Parliament after direct elections. Private papers of
presidents of the Parliament are not available, though the archive has an internet feature on Simone Veil.
There is also an audiovisual collection.
Holdings:
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/parliament/archive/
staticDisplay.do?language=EN&id=194
Complete holdings:
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/pdf/cardoc/fonds_collections_en.pdf
49
Council of Europe
http://www.coe.int/t/dgal/dit/ilcd/default_en.asp
Strasbourg, France
UNESCO/SIO Guide: http://www.unesco.org/archives/sio/Eng/presentation.php?idOrg=1004
Address:
Council of Europe Archives
Council of Europe
Avenue de l’Europe
F-67076 Strasbourg Cedex
France
Phone:
(00) 33 3 90 21 43 77
Fax:
(00) 33 3 88 41 367
Email:
archives@coe.int
Hours:
Monday – Friday, 9am – 12am (by appointment only)
The archives of the Council of Europe are based at the institution’s headquarters in Strasbourg, France.
The archives document the Council’s activities since just after the Second World War. Many files are
online, and researchers are requested to check that a visit to the physical archives is necessary.
Appointments must be made at least two weeks in advance of a visit, by contacting the archives via email,
detailing the nature of research, its period, and the objective of an enquiry.
Photocopies are free (within reason), and digital cameras are allowed in the reading room. The archives
request that a copy of any work completed using the materials viewed is deposited with them.
Contact:
http://www.coe.int/t/dgal/dit/ilcd/Contact_en.asp
Search files:
http://lms.coe.int/uhtbin/cgisirsi/x/SIRSI/0/57/49?user_id=GUEST1
Digital files:
http://128.121.10.98/coe/main.jsp?itype=advs&menu=on
Digital file links: http://www.coe.int/t/dgal/dit/ilcd/Doc/Online_en.asp#TopOfPage
Complete files: http://www.coe.int/t/dgal/dit/ilcd/Tools/BlackBook_en.asp#TopOfPage
Fonds:
http://www.coe.int/t/dgal/dit/ilcd/Archives/Fonds/default_en.asp
Selection:
http://www.coe.int/t/dgal/dit/ilcd/Archives/selection/default_en.asp
Rules:
https://wcd.coe.int/wcd/com.instranet.InstraServlet?
command=com.instranet.CmdBlobGet&InstranetImage=
1772872&SecMode=1&DocId=1681804&Usage=2
50
Council of the European Union
http://www.consilium.europa.eu/showPage.aspx?id=1282&lang=EN
Brussels, Belgium
Address:
Central Archives of the Council of the European Union
Rue de la Loi 175
B-1048 Bruxels
Belgium
Phone:
(00) 32 2 281 4962; (00) 32 2 281 5671
Fax:
(00) 32 2 281 8124
Email:
archives.centrales@consilium.europa.eu
Hours:
Monday – Friday, 9am – 4.30pm (no files fetched 12am – 2pm)
The archives of the Council of the European Union document the activities of the General Secretariat
and member states from the 1952 Treaty of Paris onwards. The archives should be contacted by email in
advance of a visit in order to make an appointment, and researchers will have to carry valid ID and pass
through a metal detector to visit the archive.
The archive has begun a digitisation project, which started in 2010. Few documents are so far available
online. The website has a very helpful ‘Virtual Visit’ section which helps researchers get the most out of a
potential visit.
The reading room is in the Justus Lipsius building, Chaussée d’Etterbeek 80, accessible via the ‘Belliard’
entrance. It also holds a small collection of historical works and printed inventories. A microfiche reader,
printer, photocopier, scanner, and a DVD burner are all available for researchers to use.
Inventories (.pdfs):
http://www.consilium.europa.eu/showpage.aspx?id=1947&lang=en
Search (in French only): http://www.consilium.europa.eu/showPage.aspx?id=1904&lang=en
Contacts:
http://www.consilium.europa.eu/showPage.aspx?id=1909&lang=en
FAQs:
http://www.consilium.europa.eu/showPage.aspx?id=1910&lang=en
51
European Commission
http://ec.europa.eu/historical_archives/index_en.htm
Brussels, Belgium
UNESCO/SIO Guide: http://www.unesco.org/archives/sio/Eng/presentation.php?idOrg=1005
Address:
European Commission Archives
Rue van Maerlant, 18
1040 Bruxels
Belgium
Phone:
(00) 32 2 295 0557
Email:
oib-archis-base@ec.europa.eu
Hours:
Monday – Friday, 9am – 12.30pm, 2pm – 5pm (4pm Fridays)
Closed:
Holidays; Easter and Christmas weeks
The archives of the European Commission are held in Brussels. The archives contain copies of the
papers of the European Commission and its predecessors, the ECSC High Authority, the EEC
Commission, and the Euratom Commission.
Access is by appointment only; contact with the archive is preferable as far in advance as possible, as not
all documents are held onsite. Valid ID must be carried to get into the building. Researchers are welcome
to use the cafeteria.
Fonds:
http://ec.europa.eu/historical_archives/archiv_fonds_en.htm
Collections:
http://ec.europa.eu/historical_archives/collections_en.htm
Search fonds:
http://ec.europa.eu/historical_archives/archisplus/
arcp_central.cfm?page=recherche&lng=en (French only)
Search meetings:
http://ec.europa.eu/historical_archives/archisplus/
arcp_central.cfm?page=colpv_searches_form&lng=en
Search speeches:
http://ec.europa.eu/historical_archives/archisplus/
arcp_central.cfm?page=coldis_searches_form&lng=en
ECSC inventories (.pdfs): http://ec.europa.eu/historical_archives/ceca_en.htm
FAQs:
http://ec.europa.eu/historical_archives/faq_en.htm
News:
http://ec.europa.eu/historical_archives/news_en.htm
52
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
http://www.oecd.org/document/42/0,3746,en_2649_201185_39455978_1_1_1_1,00.html
Paris, France
Address:
OECD Library and Archives
2, rue André-Pascal
75775 Paris Cedex 16
France
Phone:
(00) 33 1 45 24 75 86
Fax:
(00) 33 1 45 24 15 51
Email:
library&archives@oecd.org
Hours:
Monday – Friday, 9am – 5.45pm
The OECD Library & Archives contain papers dating back to the organization’s founding as well as
collections of the papers of its predecessor organizations, the Committee for European Economic
Cooperation and the Organisation for European Economic Cooperation. It contains minutes of meetings,
agendas, background documents, technical and working papers, press information, and speeches of the
Secretaries-General.
Potential researchers should fill in an online request form and, together with a photocopy of valid ID,
email it to the OECD Library, and an archivist will respond.
Unclassified or reclassified documents may be available through an online search at Official Unclassified
OECD Documents.
Further papers are held at the Historical Archives of the European Union, the details for which are listed
elsewhere in this guide.
HAEU OECD Fonds:
http://www.eui.eu/HAEU/EN/oecd.asp
53
International Non-Governmental Organizations
Any survey of international non-governmental organizations must inevitably be incomplete: there are
simply too many in existence. The few outlined here are chosen simply because of their prominence and
the accessibility of their archival collections.
Researchers interested in international and national NGOs working in the United Kingdom should, as a
first port of call, use the DANGO Project from the University of Birmingham to find the appropriate
archive.
54
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
http://www.icrc.org/eng/resources/icrc-archives/index.jsp
Geneva, Switzerland
UNESCO/SIO Guide: http://www.unesco.org/archives/sio/Eng/presentation.php?idOrg=1017
Address:
International Committee of the Red Cross
19, Avenue de la Paix
CH – 1202 Geneva
Switzerland
Phone:
(00) 41 22 730 29 66; (00) 41 22 730 29 43
Email:
fbensi@icrc.org
Hours:
Monday – Friday, 8.30am – 4.30pm (by appointment)
The archives of the ICRC hold files from 1840 onwards, and range from records of the committee to
private papers, to audiovisual and photographic records.
Researchers should, in advance of their visit, notify the head of the historical archives unit, Mr. Fabrizio
Bensi, of their intent by email, telephone, or letter. Valid ID will be required for a visitor’s pass to be
issued. The use of digital cameras is allowed in the reading room, as long as other readers are not
disturbed.
Holdings:
http://www.icrc.org/eng/resources/icrc-archives/index.jsp (.pdfs in French)
Contacts:
http://www.icrc.org/eng/resources/documents/misc/contact-archives-290506.htm
55
Rockefeller Foundation
http://www.rockarch.org/
Sleepy Hollow, New York, USA
Address:
The Rockefeller Archive Center
15 Dayton Avenue
Sleepy Hollow
NY 10591
Phone:
(00) 1 914 631 4505; (00) 1 914 366 6300
Fax:
(00) 1 914 631 6017
Email:
archive@rockarch.org
Hours:
Monday – Friday, 9am – 5.15pm
Closed:
Holidays
The Rockefeller Archive Center holds the archives of the Rockefeller family, the Rockefeller Foundation,
and the Rockefeller University. Researchers should contact the Archive Center in advance of a visit
specifying the details of research, with the names of people and institutions interested in, dates, and so on.
An archivist will then respond with details before a visit (for which photo ID is required).
The papers of the Rockefeller Foundation date back beyond the Foundation’s founding in 1913, and
include correspondence, administration files, oral histories, and information on specific projects. The
papers of several field offices are also held, detailing on-the-ground activities. Aside from the Foundation
proper, the Archive Center also holds the personal papers of many key personages from the Foundation’s
activities, other of the Rockefeller family’s philanthropic activities, and other non-profit organizations.
On online archive is currently under construction.
The use of cameras is permitted in the reading room, and photocopying is provided with a charge. The
Archive Center is easily accessible by car and by public transport (the Metro-North Hudson Line from
Grand Central Station in Manhattan): a shuttle bus is provided from Tarrytown station at the beginning
and end of the working day.
About:
http://www.rockarch.org/about/
Information:
http://www.rockarch.org/research/inforesearch.php
Foundation Finding Aids:
http://www.rockarch.org/collections/rf/#admin
List of Collections:
http://www.rockarch.org/collections/
Catalogue search:
http://racweb.rockarch.org/rockglobal/
56
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
http://carnegieendowment.org/about/library/
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/archival/collections/ldpd_4078585/
New York, USA
Address:
Columbia University Rare Book & Manuscript Library
Butler Library, 6th Floor
Columbia University
535 West 114th Street
New York, NY 10027
United States of America
Phone:
(00) 1 212 854 5153
Fax:
(00) 1 212 854 1365
Email:
rbml@libraries.cul.columbia.edu
Hours:
http://hours.library.columbia.edu/?library=rbml
The archives of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, prior to its move to Geneva in
1954, are held in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Columbia University in New York. The
archives contain correspondence, memoranda, photographs, etc., from the Endowment’s New York
Office, as well as the files of the Centre Européen and the Carnegie Endowment in Europe.
Files relating to the Endowment’s activities after 1954 are not archived, and are unavailable to the public.
Researchers are strongly advised to contact the library before arrival, though no appointment is strictly
necessary. Digital photography is allowed in the reading room, and internet is provided.
NYC/Washington Finding Aid: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/eresources/
archives/rbml/CEIP/index.html
Centre Européen Finding Aid:
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/eresources/
archives/rbml/CEIPEuro/index.html
Online Catalogue:
http://clio.cul.columbia.edu/cgi-bin/
Pwebrecon.cgi?BBRecID=4078585&v2=1
57
Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU)
http://www.ipu.org/english/home.htm
Geneva, Switzerland
Address:
Inter-Parliamentary Union
5, Chemin du Pommier
Case Postale 330
CH–1218 Le Grand-Saconnex / Geneva
Switzerland
Phone:
(00) 41 22 919 41 50
Fax:
(00) 41 22 919 41 60
Email:
postbox@mail.ipu.org
Hours:
Monday – Friday, 8.30am – 4.30pm
The archives of the Inter-Parliamentary Union date back to 1889, and are held at IPU headquarters in
Geneva. The archives contain IPU statutes, conference records, records of study committees, IPU national
groups, administrative records, correspondence, and a few photographs. The documents of the Executive
Committee and the Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians may be accessible on application.
The principal finding aid is a paper inventory, with collection level descriptions. This is available only
onsite.
The summary records of IPU conferences have been scanned, and will eventually be published online.
58
World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
http://www.worldwildlife.org/home-full.html
Washington D.C., USA
Address:
Information Resource Center
World Wildlife Fund
1250 24th St NW
Washington, D.C. 20037
United States of America
Phone:
(00) 1 202 495 4636
Fax:
(00) 1 202 331 8836
Email:
library@wwfus.org
The World Wildlife Fund does not, at this time, have established archives. The library, however, does
possess a large amount of historical material which has been used in the past, such as annual report series,
minutes of board meetings, etc.. There is no finding aid. Potential researchers are advised to get in touch
directly with the library or the wider WWF for more details.
59
Greenpeace International
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/
Vancouver, Canada; Amsterdam, The Netherlands
The archives of Greenpeace International are split between Vancouver, where it was set up, and
Amsterdam, where it currently resides.
Address:
City of Vancouver Archives
1150 Chestnut Street
Vancouver, B.C.
V6J 3J9
Canada
Phone:
(00) 1 604 736 8561
Fax:
(00) 1 604 736 0626
Email:
archives@vancouver.ca
Hours:
Monday – Friday, 9am – 5pm
The city of Vancouver holds many papers relating to the founding of Greenpeace in its municipal archives.
Documents, photographs, financial records, and correspondence are all held in the archive. A finding aid is
available for the papers.
Researchers must bring photo ID and fill in a registration form; it is suggested that they contact the library
before arrival, and remember that a reply might take a while.
About:
http://vancouver.ca/ctyclerk/archives/about/usingarc.htm
Map:
http://vancouver.ca/ctyclerk/archives/about/index.htm
Later papers of Greenpeace, especially from 1980 onwards, are held in Amsterdam.
Address:
International Institute of Social History
Cruquiusweg 31
1019 AT Amsterdam
The Netherlands
Phone:
(00) 31 20 6685866
Fax:
(00) 31 20 6654181
Email:
General:
info@iisg.nl
Reading Room: ask@iisg.nl
Hours:
Monday – Friday, 9am – 5pm
60
These archives contain correspondence, minutes of board meetings, some files of regional offices, files of
directors, and so on. Many papers are still held by the Greenpeace central office (especially financial
records).
Permission is required to use these files, and may be granted by filling in a form. Files will be pre-fetched
with 24 hours’ notice, but contacting the library before arrival is not strictly necessary.
Description:
http://www.iisg.nl/archives/en/files/g/10918786.php
Finding aid:
http://www.iisg.nl/archives/pdf/10918786.pdf
About IISH:
http://www.iisg.nl/address.php
Reading room: http://www.iisg.nl/services/readingroom.php
FAQs:
http://www.iisg.nl/services/faq.php
61
Amnesty International (AI)
http://www.iisg.nl/archives/en/files/a/10739035.php
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
The papers of the International Secretariat of Amnesty International are held at the International
Institute of Social History in Amsterdam. AI’s secretariat is based in London, and has consultative status
with the UN, UNESCO, and the Council of Europe. Papers date back to its founding in 1961, and include
notes of meetings, working papers, internal correspondence, papers of Secretaries-General (including the
personal papers of Eric Baker), and various other documents. There is also an oral history collection. For
further information on the International Institute of Social History, see the entry for Greenpeace
International in this guide.
Permission may be required to access some files, but many are open. Researchers should best check
directly with the reading room to find out if permission (which may require up to two months) is required.
If the information required was created after 1990, it may be available via an online search.
Contact page:
http://www.iisg.nl/address.php
Complete finding aid:
http://www.iisg.nl/archives/pdf/10739035.pdf
The papers of Amnesty International USA are held by the Center for Human Rights Documentation &
Research at Columbia University, via the Rare Book and Manuscript Library. For further information on
the library, see this guide’s entry on the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Researchers wanting
to use AIUSA’s papers should contact the Rare Book and Manuscript Library directly.
CHRDR:
http://library.columbia.edu/indiv/humanrights/about.html
Information:
http://library.columbia.edu/indiv/humanrights/
archive_collections/aiusa.html
Finding aid:
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/libraries/inside/projects/findingaids/
scans/pdfs/AIUSA_NatOffice.pdf
62
Helsinki Watch/Human Rights Watch
http://www.hrw.org/en/node/75134
New York, USA
The papers of Human Rights Watch, including regional files relating to Africa, Asia, and the Middle
East, are held by Columbia University’s Center for Human Rights Documentation & Research, and are
therefore available through Columbia University’s Rare Book and Manuscript Library, The HRW
collection also contains over 270 feet of records of the Helsinki Watch group. There is currently only a
finding aid for the Helsinki Watch portion of the papers; other papers are more recent.
For more information on the Columbia library, see the entry in this guide for the Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace. The papers of HRW are held off-site, and therefore 24 hours’ notice is required for
use (contact the library directly).
CHRDR:
http://library.columbia.edu/indiv/humanrights/about.html
Collections:
http://library.columbia.edu/indiv/humanrights/archive_collections/hrw.html
Helsinki Watch:
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/archival/collections/
ldpd_6062290/index.html
Helsinki Watch Aid:
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/libraries/inside/projects/findingaids/
scans/pdfs/HRW_Helsinki.pdf
63
Rotary International
http://www.rotary.org/en/AboutUs/History/ResearchRotary/Pages/ridefault.aspx
Lincolnwood, Illinois, USA
Address:
Rotary History and Archives
7100 N. Lawndale Avenue
Lincolnwood
IL 60712
United States of America
Phone:
(00) 1 847 866 3193
Fax:
(00) 1 847 866 3276
Email:
history@rotary.org
Hours:
Monday – Friday, 9am – 4pm
The archives of Rotary International and The Rotary Foundation document the activities of notable
Rotarians, and contain correspondence between Rotarian presidents and leaders, photographs, and so on.
The archives also contain collections of the issues of The Rotarian magazine, proceedings of conventions,
and an official directory, all from 1910 to the present day.
Access to the archives is by permission only and priority is given to Rotarians. Research questions should
be emailed, and answers may require six weeks. For an appointment, contact should be made with the
library at least one week in advance.
Map:
http://www.rotary.org/en/AboutUs/History/ResearchRotary/Pages/guidelines.aspx
FAQs:
http://www.rotary.org/en/AboutUs/History/ResearchRotary/Pages/questions.aspx
History:
http://www.rotary.org/en/aboutus/history/rihistory/Pages/ridefault.aspx
Timeline:
http://www.rotary.org/en/AboutUs/History/RotaryTimeline/Pages/ridefault.aspx
64
International Olympic Committee (IOC)
http://www.olympic.org/historical-archives
Lausanne, Switzerland
Address:
Olympic Studies Centre
Quai d’Ouchy 1
1001 Lausanne
Switzerland
Phone:
(00) 41 21 621 6318
Fax:
(00) 41 21 621 6718
Email:
studies_centre@olympic.org
Hours:
April – October:
Monday – Friday, 9am – 5pm
November – March:
Tuesday – Friday, 9am – 5pm
The archives of the International Olympic Committee date back to the modern Movement’s founding
in 1894, and document the Committee and the Movement’s activities up to the last twenty years. Paper
folders and microfilms equate to one linear kilometre of files, and the archive also contains collections
related to the Movement and private archives. Though many files are opened under a twenty-year rule,
personal papers of IOC members, as well as the minutes of the Nominations and Ethics commissions, are
opened under a hundred-year rule.
Access to the archives is by permission only, by the filling in of an online form. The Olympic Studies
Centre makes several grants available every year for postgraduate students embarking on research involving
the IOC or the Olympics.
Access regulations:
http://www.olympic.org/Assets/OSC Section/pdf/Info P_3E.pdf
Permission form:
https://secure.registration.olympic.org/en/visit
Finding aids (.pdf):
http://www.olympic.org/content/the-olympic-studies-centre/
categories-container/list-of-resources/
Research grants:
http://www.olympic.org/olympic-studies-centre?articleid=126964
Academic network:
http://www.olympic.org/content/the-olympic-studies-centre/
categories-container/academic-activities-and-network/
University relations:
http://www.olympic.org/university-relations
Image archive:
http://www.olympic.org/image-archives
Library:
http://www.olympic.org/library
65
World Scout Movement
http://scout.org/
Geneva, Switzerland
Address:
World Organization of the Scout Movement
Rue du Pré-Jerôme 5
P.O. Box 91
CH-1211 Geneva 4 Plainpalais
Switzerland
Phone:
(00) 41 22 705 10 10
Fax:
(00) 41 22 705 10 20
Email:
worldbureau@scout.org
In addition to any records held by national scout groups or elsewhere, the central office of the World
Scout Bureau in Geneva holds historical documents dating back to Baden Powell.
There is no website for the archives section, but a catalogue by subjects is available in Geneva, and visitors
can consult it together with the archives on site.
Potential researchers should contact the Geneva office directly to make an appointment.
66
Catholic Church
http://www.archiviosegretovaticano.va/
Vatican City
Address:
Archivio Segreto Vaticano
Cortile del Belvedere
00120 Città del Vaticano
Phone:
(00) 39 06 69883314; (00) 39 06 69883211
Fax:
(00) 39 06 69885574
Email:
asv@asv.va
Hours:
Monday – Saturday, 8.15am – 1pm (afternoons by permission only)
The Vatican Secret Archive allows access to papers up to 1939 (the death of Pius XI) for researchers
already possessing a university degree.
A request for an entry card must be made to the Prefect of the Archive, providing personal details,
profession, research outline, a letter of introduction from a professor, a photograph, and a copy of valid
ID. An entry card will then be issued between 8.15am and 10.30am by the Admission Secretariat on the
day of arrival (provided that nobody is already working in the archives on the same topic).
Rules:
http://www.archiviosegretovaticano.va/?file_id=8
Outline:
http://www.archiviosegretovaticano.va/en/patrimonio/
File Index (It): http://www.archiviosegretovaticano.va/?file_id=2
67
World Council of Churches
http://library.oikoumene.org/home.html
Geneva, Switzerland
Address:
World Council of Churches Library and Archives
P.O. Box 2100
[7, Route des Morillons]
CH-1211 Geneva 2
Switzerland
Phone:
(00) 41 022 791 62 79
Fax:
(00) 41 022 791 62 75
Email:
library@wcc-coe.org
Hours:
Monday – Friday, 9am – 5pm
The archives of the World Council of Churches, which brings together innumerable denominations and
national Churches in a single ecumenical body, are held in Geneva. The archive holds hundreds of
thousands of documents, as well as sound recordings, photographs, and videos.
Potential researchers are asked to fill in an access request form and email it in.
Access/hours:
http://library.oikoumene.org/home/access-and-opening-hours.html
Archives:
http://library.oikoumene.org/archives.html
Papers:
http://library.oikoumene.org/archives/paper-collection.html
Search:
http://archives.oikoumene.org/Query/archivplansuche.aspx
68
Personalities of Internationalism
The papers of the personalities of internationalism are too spread out and too difficult to find to attempt
anything like a full list of them. Drawing the line of exclusion would also be very difficult. For this guide,
then, information pertaining to the papers of the Secretaries-General of both the UN and the League of
Nations, key advisors, and some directors of UN organizations, have been gathered here. It should be
noted that de-classification schedules vary wildly, especially between Secretaries-General, depending on
desired levels of openness.
Secretaries-General (League of Nations)
Eric Drummond (1919–1933)
The personal papers of Sir Eric Drummond – other than those incidentally held at the League of Nations
Archive in Geneva – were unfortunately destroyed by fire in World War II. Drummond was the first
Secretary-General of the League, in office from 1919 to 1933.
69
Joseph Avenol (1933–1940)
Joseph Avenol replaced Jean Monnet as Deputy Secretary-General of the League of Nations in 1923,
becoming Secretary-General in 1933 upon Sir Eric Drummond’s resignation. Avenol was widely criticised
at the time for failing to protect the League against the manoeuvres of Germany and Italy, and of using the
League as an extension of the French Foreign Ministry.
Avenol’s papers are split between the Private Papers of the League of Nations Archive in Geneva, and the
archives of the French Foreign Ministry. The papers held at the League’s Archives number only seventeen
files. The papers held in Paris extend to 43 volumes, and are now held not at the traditional home of the
French Foreign Ministry’s archives at the Quai d’Orsay, but at a new facility in La Courneuve, in the Paris
suburbs.
Address:
Ministère des Affaires étrangères et europénnes
Direction des Archives
3, rue Suzanne Masson
93126 La Courneuve Cedex
France
Phone:
(00) 33 1 43 17 70 30; (00) 33 1 43 17 70 48; (00) 33 1 43 17 70 36; (00) 33 1 43 17 42 42
Email:
lecture.archives@diplomatie.gouv.fr
Hours:
Monday – Friday, 9.30am – 5pm
Transport:
RER B, Aubervilliers/La Courneuve
An annual reading pass will be granted to researchers on presentation of valid photo ID. It is probably best
to contact the archive before visiting.
Archives (en):
http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/ministry_158/archives-andheritage_3562/index.html
Archives (fr):
http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/fr/ministere_817/archivespatrimoine_3512/index.html
La Courneuve (fr):
http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/fr/ministere_817/archivespatrimoine_3512/colonne-droite_5491/salleslecture_11548/courneuve_22488.html
List of private papers (fr): http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/fr/ministere_817/archivespatrimoine_3512/fonds-collections_5143/entrees-exceptionnellescollections_11595/papiers-agents-archives-privees_12688/liste-fondsconsultation-2006_49299.html
70
Séan Lester (1940–1947)
Séan Lester was appointed the representative of the Irish Free State to the League of Nations in 1929, and
seconded by the League itself to become High Commissioner of the League of Nations to the Free City of
Danzig in 1933. He became Deputy Secretary-General in 1937, and Acting Secretary-General in 1940 after
the departure of Joseph Avenol to Vichy France, a position in which Lester remained until the League was
shut down and its activities transferred to the United Nations. Lester was retroactively appointed SecretaryGeneral in 1946.
Lester’s papers are split between University College, Dublin, and the League of Nations Archive in
Geneva. The League of Nations papers are split between private papers in the ‘Private Archives’ subfonds, and the Secretariat files listed as the ‘Office of the Secretary-General (1939 (c) – 1947 (c))’. Both can
be found by searching the online catalogue of UNOG (see above).
The Séan Lester papers at UCD consist of private and League files, as well as files relating to Lester’s other
activities. There is a descriptive catalogue available at the library.
Address:
UCD Archives
James Joyce Library
University College Dublin
Belfield
Dublin 4
Ireland
Phone:
(00) 353 1 716 7555
Fax:
(00) 353 1 716 1146
Email:
archives@ucd.ie
Hours:
Monday – Thursday, 10am – 5pm
The UCD Archives operate by appointment only, and researchers should contact the library in advance. A
reader’s ticket valid for one year will be issued. Researchers are advised to use public transport, either the
39A or 46A buses.
Collection:
http://www.ucd.ie/archives/html/collections/lester-sean.html
Information:
http://www.ucd.ie/archives/html/planningyourvisit.htm#admission
71
Secretaries-General (United Nations)
The archives of the Secretaries-General of the UN are surprisingly scattered and haphazard. This comes as
a direct result of historic archival procedure, which meant that Secretaries-General were, essentially, in
control of their own papers and not required to give them to the United Nations archive. The guide here
cannot, of course, be counted as containing everything, and further research will obviously be required.
Researchers should, in the first instance, use UNARMS’s dedicated page on the Secretaries-General (with
the exception of Jebb).
UNARMS:
http://archives.un.org/ARMS/UN_Secretaries-General
Scholars should also note the published public papers of several Secretaries-General, edited by Andrew
Cordier, amongst others. These should be available in academic libraries, or over the internet. These
editions are available for Secretaries-General from Trygve Lie to U Thant, covering eight volumes, and all
released by Columbia University Press. Charles Hill has also edited the public papers of Boutros BoutrosGhali, running to 2400 pages on Yale University Press.
72
Gladwyn Jebb (1945–1946)
Baron Gladwyn, a distinguished British diplomat, was the Acting Secretary-General of the United Nations
from 24 October 1945 to 2 February 1946, having previously been the Executive Secretary of the
Preparatory Commission of the United Nations from August 1945. He returned to the United Nations as
Great Britain’s Ambassador between 1950 and 1954.
Baron Gladwyn’s papers are held in two locations: his personal papers at the Churchill Archives Centre
in Cambridge, and his official papers at The National Archives at Kew, Richmond, both in Britain:
Address:
Churchill Archives Centre
Churchill College
Cambridge
CB3 0DS
Phone:
(00) 44 1223 336087
Fax:
(00) 44 1223 336135
Email:
archives@chu.cam.ac.uk
Hours:
Monday – Friday, 9am – 5pm
Finding aid:
http://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk/db/node.xsp?id=EAD%2FGBR%2F0014%2FGLAD
Two forms of photo ID are required for use of the Churchill Archives Centre, and contact with the Centre
is required before scheduling a visit. The files contain mostly personal correspondence and speech files.
There is also an index to Baron Gladwyn’s papers at the National Archives.
Address:
The National Archives
Kew
Richmond
Surrey
TW9 4DU
United Kingdom
Phone:
(00) 44 20 8876 3444
Hours:
Tuesday – Saturday, 9am – 5pm (Tuesday, Thursday, 9am – 7pm)
Prior ordering of files is unnecessary at the National Archives, but scholars looking to start work
immediately at the beginning of the day should consult the NA’s ‘Ordering Documents in Advance’ page.
The Jebb files are listed as FCO 73/254 to FCO 73/268. There is no easy way to extract finding aids of the
15 volumes of his papers, but the appropriate search is provided here.
73
Trygve Lie (1946–1952)
Trygve Lie was Secretary-General – the UN’s first – between February 1946 and November 1952.
UNARMS holds very few files relating to Lie. The Lie fonds itself holds only some General Assembly
meeting files (S-0922 finding aid). Further files, though not many, are held in the Dag Hammarsklöld
papers (S-0844 and S-0847), mostly concerning Lie’s meetings with Undersecretaries-General.
UNARMS:
http://archives.un.org/ARMS/node/77 - Archival Fonds GTL
The Andrew Cordier Papers at Columbia University (see below) hold some of Lie’s files in Boxes 116,
117, and 130, relating to trips and other subjects.
Further papers are held in Norway. Lie donated several boxes to the Foreign Ministry in 1966. These seem
now to be held at the National Library of Norway.
Address:
National Library of Norway
Henrik Ibsens Gate 110
NO-0255 Oslo
Norway
Phone:
(00) 47 810 01 300; (00) 47 23 27 50 12
Fax:
(00) 47 75 12 12 22; (00) 47 23 27 60 50
Email:
nb@nb.no
Researchers ought to be in touch with the library before arrival. Two lists of files are available, as well as a
list of sound recordings.
List I:
http://archives.un.org/ARMS/sites/ARMS/uploads/lie/manuscript%20catalogue.pdf
List II:
http://archives.un.org/ARMS/sites/ARMS/uploads/lie/
National%20Library%20of%20Norway.pdf
Sound files:
http://archives.un.org/ARMS/sites/ARMS/uploads/lie/
Sound%20recordings%20Trygve%20Lie.pdf
74
Dag Hammarskjöld (1953–1961)
The Swedish diplomat Dag Hammarskjöld was the UN’s second Secretary-General, taking office in April
1953. He was killed in a plane crash in the Congo on 18 September 1961, whilst supervising UN military
operations there.
As is the case with Trygve Lie, UNARMS holds few of Hammarskjöld’s files. Further fonds of note,
relating solely to the Congo crisis, are to be found in, and together with, U Thant’s papers (S-0845 and S0849).
UNARMS:
http://archives.un.org/ARMS/node/76#Archival%20Fonds%20GDH
Folder list:
http://archives.un.org/ARMS/sites/ARMS/uploads/files/XML/ag001%20Dag%20Hamma.xml
The rest of Hammarskjöld’s papers are split between the Andrew Cordier Papers at Columbia
University and the National Library of Sweden. The files at Columbia deal with trips, miscellany,
various subjects, and peacekeeping and/or military matters (see below on Cordier).
The Swedish files contain memorabilia and correspondence, country files, photographs, trip files, and files
relating to the Middle East and the Congo.
Address:
The National Library of Sweden/Kungl. Biblioteket
Box 5039
SE–102 41 Stockholm
Sweden
Phone:
(00) 46 10 709 30 00
Fax:
(00) 46 10 709 39 25
Email:
kungl.biblioteket@kb.se
Hours:
http://www.kb.se/english/visits/hours/ (varies by season)
It is best to contact the library in advance, though it may be strictly unnecessary. A list of files, through the
library’s ‘Eddifah’ search engine for manuscripts, is available, and is split between Swedish and English.
List:
http://www.ediffah.org/search/present.cgi?id=ediffah:kb:753647:
1302174833&termlist=dag+hammarskjöld&boollist=and&fieldlist
=set%3Bany&number=10&start=1&script=search.php
75
U Thant (1961–1971)
U Thant was unanimously elected Secretary-General a short time after the death of Dag Hammarskjöld,
having previously been Burma’s representative to the UN. Having guided the UN through the Cuban
Missile Crisis, the civil war in the Congo, the admission of dozens of states into the UN during the period
of decolonization, and the establishment of agencies such as the UNDP, the UNEP, and the UN
University, Thant retired in 1971. His death in 1974 caused a major political crisis in Burma – by then ruled
by a military junta – which involved thousands rioting in Rangoon and the deaths of protestors.
The vast majority of U Thant’s files – there may be others in strictly private and closed hands – are held by
UNARMS. UNARMS has also used U Thant’s files in the first step of its digitisation efforts. Many if not
most of his files are therefore available online, through a simple search using the UNARMS website. It is
strongly advised that the archival description on Thant’s UNARMS biography page are used in conjunction
with this, as the search engine is rather sprawling.
UNARMS:
http://archives.un.org/ARMS/node/75 - Archival Fonds UT
Complete fonds outline: http://archives.un.org/ARMS/sites/ARMS/uploads/thant/AG-005.pdf
ARMS Search:
http://archives-trim.un.org/test/TRIM-template.htm
76
Kurt Waldheim (1972–1981)
Kurt Waldheim, after an unsuccessful attempt to become President of Austria in 1971, was elected
Secretary-General of the UN at the end of the same year. Having been re-elected in 1976, the People’’s
Republic of China vetoed his attempt to serve a third term. Running for President of Austria once again in
1985/6, Waldheim’s activities as an officer in the Wehrmacht during the Second World War caused an
international furore, which some argued heavily diminished the integrity of the office of the SecretaryGeneral. Waldheim’s past led him – despite a successful election to the Presidency, an office he held until
1992 – to be declared persona non grata by the United States of America in 1987. Waldheim’s term at the UN
is notable mostly for his travelling, as well as heavy involvement in Middle East politics.
Waldheim’s papers are mostly split between his Austrian and UN service. UNARMS holds nearly 500
boxes relating to Waldheim’s time as Secretary-General, including his personal files and his
correspondence with heads of state. A full archival description is available. Many files are also online
through UNARMS’s search function.
UNARMS:
http://archives.un.org/ARMS/node/74 - Archival Fonds KW
Complete fonds outline: http://archives.un.org/ARMS/sites/ARMS/uploads/waldheim/
WaldheimAG-006.pdf
ARMS Search:
http://archives-trim.un.org/test/TRIM-template.htm
Another large collection of Waldheim’s papers is held at the Austrian National Library, the
Österreichische Nationalbibliothek in Vienna. There appears to be no finding aid for these papers, and
potential researchers absolutely must contact the archive before arrival.
Address:
Österreichische Nationalbibliothek
Department of Manuscripts and Rare Books
Josefsplatz 1
1015 Wien
Austria
Phone:
(00) 43 1 534 10 288
Fax:
(00) 43 1 534 10 296
Email:
had-slg@onb.ac.at
Collections (de): http://www.onb.ac.at/sammlungen/hschrift/handschriften_bestaende_archive.htm
Collections (en): http://www.onb.ac.at/ev/collections/manuscripts/9904.htm
77
Javier Pérez de Cuéllar (1982–1991)
Javier Pérez de Cuéllar was elected Secretary-General of the UN in 1981, taking over from Kurt Waldheim,
and having been active both as Peru’s representative to the UN and for the UN itself during the 1970s.
During his tenure – he was re-elected in 1986 – he was prominent in mediation between Great Britain and
Argentina after the Falklands War, in the negotiations for Namibia’s independence, and the Cyprus
dispute.
The papers of Cuéllar that relate to his time at the UN are held by UNARMS: others remain in private
hands and/or have yet to be released. UNARMS currently permits access up to 1989, though the period up
to the end of 1991 will soon be opened.
UNARMS:
http://archives.un.org/ARMS/node/73 - Archival Fonds JPDC
Complete fonds outline: http://archives.un.org/ARMS/sites/ARMS/uploads/cuellar/CuellarAG019.pdf
Photocopies of the papers that Cuéllar used to write his memoirs, Pilgrimage for Peace, are held at Yale
University Library. Yale also holds various miscellaneous papers of Cuéllar’s.
Address:
Manuscripts and Archives
Sterling Memorial Library
128 Wall Street
P.O. Box 208240
New Haven
CT 06520
Phone:
(00) 1 203 432 1735
Fax:
(00) 1 203 432 7441
Finding aid:
http://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/mssa.ms.1768
FA (.pdf):
http://drs.library.yale.edu:8083/fedora/get/mssa:ms.1768/PDF
78
Boutros Boutros-Ghali (1992–1996)
Boutros Boutros-Ghali was elected to replace Cuéllar in 1991, and is the only Secretary-General to have
served a single term: his bid for a second term was vetoed by the United States, largely over his
performances relating to Rwanda, Angola, and Bosnia. Perhaps his greatest contribution to the history of
the United Nations – besides his repeated failure to act – was the writing of An Agenda for Peace in 1992,
which introduced the concept of ‘post-conflict peacebuilding’ and firmed ideas of peacekeeping. Prior to
his UN role, Boutros-Ghali was Egypt’s Foreign Minister for fourteen years.
UNARMS will open many of Boutros-Ghali’s papers in 2013, as restrictions are gradually lifted.
UNARMS:
http://archives.un.org/ARMS/node/92 - Archival Fonds BB-G
Complete fonds outline: http://archives.un.org/ARMS/sites/ARMS/uploads/ghali/
Boutros-Ghali AG-028.pdf
Further of Boutros-Ghali’s papers are held at the Hoover Institution Archives at Stanford University in
California. These papers especially refer to Boutros-Ghali’s time as Egyptian Foreign Minister, but also
include UN details, as well as some papers of Charles Hill, a special advisor to Boutros-Ghali at the UN.
No finding aid seems available online.
Address:
Carol Leadenham
Hoover Institution Archives
Stanford
CA 94305-6010
United States of America
Phone:
(00) 1 650 723 3563
Fax:
(00) 1 650 723 3445
Email:
carol.leadenham@stanford.edu
Hours:
Monday – Friday, 8.15am – 4.45pm
Description:
http://jenson.stanford.edu/uhtbin/cgisirsi/?ps=R7IWiN5Xlz/GREEN/185260188/88
FAQs:
http://www.hoover.org/library-and-archives/use-of-materials
Hours, etc.:
http://www.hoover.org/library-and-archives/hours-and-directions
79
Kofi Annan (1997–2006)
Previously an Assistant Secretary-General from the late 1980s onwards, including responsibility for
peacekeeping between 1993 and 1996, as well as being Undersecretary-General from 1994, Kofi Annan
was elected Secretary-General in late 1996. Annan’s two-term tenure saw the instigation of the Millennium
Development Goals, the Oil-for-Food scandal, and difficulties in asserting the UN’s role in the face of an
increasingly unilateral United States of America.
Annan’s papers are not yet declassified, but UNARMS is undertaking a large declassification project and
access should be more open soon. The declassification project is being undertaken in association with the
publication of his public papers by Jean Krasno at Yale.
UNARMS:
http://archives.un.org/ARMS/node/71 - Archival Fonds KA
Complete fonds outline: http://archives.un.org/ARMS/sites/ARMS/uploads/files/AG-029.pdf
80
Others
Ralph J. Bunche
Ralph Bunche (1903-1971) began his association with the UN at the Dumbarton Oaks conference
discussing its foundation. He was also key in drafting the UN Declaration of Human Rights. In 1948 he
became the chief UN mediator in the Arab-Israeli conflict, his work in which gained him the Nobel Peace
Prize in 1950. Bunche was Undersecretary of Special Political Affairs between 1958 and 1967, and
Undersecretary-General from 1968. Also a key figure in the American civil rights movement and a
distinguished professor, Bunche died in 1971. He was the subject of a biography, Ralph Bunche: An American
Life (1993), by Sir Brian Urquhart, perhaps the UN’s most eminent international civil servant.
Most of the Ralph Bunche papers are held in the Special Collections of UCLA in California, USA:
Address:
A1713 Charles E. Young Research Library
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575
United States of America
Phone:
(00) 1 310 825 4988
Fax:
(00) 1 310 206 1864
Email:
Contact form
Hours:
Monday – Friday, 10am – 5pm (map)
Potential researchers should contact the library via the contact form at least five days in advance of a visit,
as files may be held offsite. Photo ID will be required for a UC library card.
Some files are held online, and are viewable through the general, and highly detailed online finding aid.
Finding aid:
http://www.oac.cdlib.org/view?docId=tf8r29p24k;query=;style=oac4
Also held at UCLA are the papers of Sir Brian Urquhart specifically relating to his Bunche biography.
These files contain a wealth of further information on Bunche, and have been made available to the public.
Finding aid:
http://www.oac.cdlib.org/view?docId=kt409nb02d;style=oac4;view=dsc#c01-1.3.6.84
Further, more private papers (correspondence with family, etc.) are held at the Schomburg Center in New
York. Though more private, the archive does contain significant papers relating explicitly to Bunche’s UN
work, including correspondence with Secretaries-General:
81
Address:
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
515 Malcolm X Boulevard
New York, NY 10037–1801
United States of America
Phone:
(00) 1 212 491 2224
Email:
scmarbref@nypl.org
Hours:
Tuesday – Thursday, 12am – 5pm; Friday – Saturday, 10am – 5pm (by appointment
only)
Introduction:
http://www.nypl.org/archives/3521
Finding aid:
http://www.nypl.org/ead/3521
82
Andrew W. Cordier
Andrew Cordier (1901-1975) was Executive Assistant to the Secretaries-General between 1946 and 1962.
He was also, variously, Undersecretary in Charge of General Assembly and Related Affairs, and often a
special representative of the Secretary-General (in Korea, during the Suez crisis, and in the Congo). He was
forced to resign in 1962 after the USSR accused him of acting with too much independent authority. After
Cordier left the UN he became Dean of the Columbia University School of International Affairs and
President of Columbia University.
The Cordier files are emblematic of the confusing archive system left by United Nations files. His papers
included many of the papers of Trygve Lie and Daj Hammarskjöld, either simply because he kept them or
because they were used in the preparation of Corder’s published editions of their public papers. They also
include Cordier’s files, correspondence, nearly 80 boxes of administrative folders, and memoranda on a
wealth of topics, including Dumbarton Oaks, subject files relating to his time at the UN, and the setting up
of the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation.
The files are held at Columbia University Rare Book & Manuscript Library. For further information
on contacting the library, opening hours, procedures, etc., see the entry above on the Carnegie Endowment
for International Peace.
Online catalogue:
http://clio.cul.columbia.edu/cgi-bin/
Pwebrecon.cgi?BBRecID=4078651&v2=1
Full finding aid:
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/libraries/inside/projects/findingaids/
scans/pdfs/ldpd_rbml_4078651.pdf
83
UNESCO Directors-General
Julian Huxley (1946-1948)
Jaime Torres Bodet (1948-1952)
John Wilkinson Taylor (acting 1952-1953)
Luther Evans (1953-1958)
Vittorino Veronese (1958-1961)
René Maheu (1961-1974)
Amadou-Mahtar M’Bow (1974-1987)
Federico Mayor Zaragoza (1987-1999)
Koïchiro Matsuura (1999-2009)
Irina Bokova (2009- )
UNESCO itself holds the archives of its Directors-General, at least for when they worked at UNESCO.
The requisite files are located in two fonds, the ‘Documents of the Director-General’ and the ‘Secretariat
Records’ which contain many personal files.
Other files are less simple to find, but the personal papers of perhaps the two most prominent DirectorsGeneral can be found in the United States. Help finding the other archives might be provided by
UNESCO.
Julian Huxley (1946-1948)
Julian Huxley was the first Director-General of UNESCO, and was a prominent biologist and scientific
humanist. His papers are held at the Woodsen Research Center at Rice University, Texas, and run to 91
linear feet. They include private correspondence.
Address:
Woodson Research Center
Fondren Library – MS 44
Rice University
P.O. Box 1892
Houston
TX 77251-1892
Phone:
(00) 1 713 348 2586
Fax:
(00) 1 713 348 6172
Email:
woodsen@rice.edu
Hours:
Monday – Friday, 9am – 4pm
Huxley’s papers are open to the public, but researchers are advised to contact the library before a visit.
84
Finding aid:
http://library.rice.edu/collections/WRC/finding-aids/manuscripts/0050#ref115
Luther Evans (1953-1958)
Luther Harris Evans was the American Librarian of Congress under President Harry S. Truman (19451953), and then the Director-General of UNESCO. In 1952 he helped draft the Universal Copyright
Convention at Geneva in 1952. His papers cover mostly the period 1945-1958, and are held at the Briscoe
Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin.
Address:
Dolph Briscoe Center for American History
The University of Texas at Austin
Sid Richardson Hall
1 University Station D1100
Austin
TX 78712-0335
United States of America
Phone:
(00) 1 512 495 4532
Email:
Reference Request Form
Hours:
Hours
Researchers wishing to view Evans’s papers are best served by checking with the library in advance, though
they are all open to the public.
Finding aid:
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/utcah/00289/cah-00289.html
85
UNICEF Executive Directors
Maurice Pate (1947-1965)
Henry R. Labouisse (1965-1979)
James P. Grant (1980-1995)
Carol Bellamy (1995-2005)
Ann M. Veneman (2005-2010)
Anthony Lake (2010- )
Some of the papers of UNICEF Executive Directors are held at the UNICEF archives. However, further
papers of the first two Executive Directors are held at the Mudd Manuscript Library at Princeton
University, New Jersey, in the United States of America.
Address:
Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library
Princeton University
65 Olden Street
Princeton, NJ 08540
United States of America
Phone:
(00) 1 609 258 6345
Fax:
(00) 1 609 258 3385
Email:
mudd@princeton.edu
Hours:
Monday – Friday, 9am – 4.45pm
It is best to contact the Mudd before visiting, but files are held onsite and do not require prior ordering or
registration.
FAQs:
http://www.princeton.edu/~mudd/research/
Maurice Pate (1947-1965)
Finding aid:
http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/b5644r55t
FA (.pdf):
http://findingaids.princeton.edu/pdf?id=ark:/88435/b5644r55t
Henry R. Labouisse (1965-1979)
Of further interest to scholars is that the papers of Labouisse also contain documentation of his time as
director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East
(UNRWA).
Finding aid:
http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/zc77sq10r
86
FA (.pdf):
http://findingaids.princeton.edu/pdf?id=ark:/88435/zc77sq10r
Carol Bellamy (1995-2005)
Though no papers are publicly available for Carol Bellamy relating to her time at UNICEF, personal
papers up to 1985 are available via New York University. These are unlikely to be of great interest to
students of internationalism, however.
Finding aid:
http://dlib.nyu.edu/findingaids/html/fales/bellamy.html
87
ILO Directors-General
Albert Thomas (1919-1932)
Harold Butler (1932-1938)
John G. Winant (1939-1941)
Edward Phelan (1941-1948)
David A. Morse (1948-1970)
C. Wilfred Jenks (1970-1973)
Francis Blanchard (1974-1989)
Michel Hansenne (1989-1999)
Juan Somavia (1999- )
The ILO Archives hold many papers pertaining to the activities of all their Directors-General, plus the
private papers of Albert Thomas and C. Wilfred Jenks.
John G. Winant (1939-1941)
Many of the papers of John G. Winant, including those relating to his time at the ILO, are held in the
Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, though there is no finding aid.
Address:
Archives Department
Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and Museum
4079 Albany Post Road
Hyde Park, NY 12538
United States of America
Phone:
(00) 1 845 486 1142
Fax:
(00) 1 845 486 1147
Email:
archives.fdr@nara.gov or Ask the Archivist
Hours:
Monday – Friday, 8.45am - 5pm
David A. Morse (1948-1970)
The papers of David A. Morse, under whom the ILO won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1969, are held at the
Mudd Manuscript Library at Princeton University. For details on the Mudd, see the entry in this guide on
UNICEF Executive Directors.
Finding aid:
http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/qr46r081c
FA (.pdf):
http://findingaids.princeton.edu/pdf?id=ark:/88435/qr46r081c
88
World Bank Presidents
Eugene Meyer (1946-1946)
John J. McCloy (1947-1949)
Eugene R. Black, Sr. (1949-1963)
George Woods (1963-1968)
Robert S. McNamara (1968-1981)
Alden W. Clausen (1981-1986)
Barber Conable (1986-1991)
Lewis T. Preston (1991-1995)
Sir James Wolfensohn (1995-2005)
Paul Wolfowitz (2005-2007)
Robert B. Zoellick (2007- )
The papers of the Presidents of the World Bank are scattered: before Alden W. Clausen, each President
took most of his papers with him upon his departure. The World Bank archive itself (see the institution
entry above) holds the relevant papers of Presidents from Clausen onwards, and some of the papers of
Presidents from McCloy to McNamara, in the ‘Records of the Office of the President’ fonds. Other papers
may be found in the Central Files. Eugene Meyer, the first President, appears to have no accessible public
papers, but his four successors have left papers open to researchers.
John J. McCloy (1947-1949)
McCloy’s presidency of the World Bank forms only part of a long and distinguished career in public
service. His papers – containing six folders relating to World Bank work – are held at Amherst College, of
which McCloy was a trustee, though there may be further papers of interest in the National Archives of the
United States, the Truman Presidential Library, and the Ford Foundation.
Address:
Amherst College Archives and Special Collections
Robert Frost Library
PO Box 5000
Amherst
MA 01002-5000
United States of America
Phone:
(00) 1 413 542 2299
Fax:
(00) 1 413 542 2692
Email:
Contact form
Hours:
Monday – Friday, 9am – 4pm
89
Files may need to be requested 24 hours in advance, so it is probably best to check in advance with the
library.
Information:
https://www.amherst.edu/library/archives/generalinfo
Finding aid:
http://asteria.fivecolleges.edu/findaids/amherst/ma35.html
Eugene R. Black, Sr. (1949-1963)
Black stayed at the World Bank for so long – three terms of office – that it began to be caricatured as
‘Black’s Bank’. His papers are held at the University of Georgia.
Address:
Hargrett Library
Main Library
320 S. Jackson St.
University of Georgia
Athens
Georgia 30602-1641
United States of America
Phone:
(00) 1 706 542 7123
Fax:
(00) 1 706 542 0672
Hours:
Monday – Friday, 8am – 5pm; Saturday, 1pm – 5pm
Closed:
University holidays; University of Georgia home football games
Researchers should contact the library before visiting via the ‘Reference Request Form’ online. A
‘Researcher Application Form’ will need to be brought to the library, along with valid ID.
Finding aid:
http://hmfa.libs.uga.edu/hmfa/view?docId=ead/ms1108-ead.xml;query
=eugene black;brand=default
George Woods (1963-1968)
The papers of George Woods are held at Columbia University. For details on the Rare Book & Manuscript
Library Collections, see the entry in this guide for the Carnegie Endowment. The Woods papers, as they
are rarely accessed, are held offsite, and at least 24 hours’ notice is required to view them. For some files
(the Country Economic Briefs), permission from the World Bank is required for use.
Finding aid:
http://findingaids.cul.columbia.edu/ead/nnc-rb/ldpd_4078355/
summary - scope_content
90
Robert S. McNamara (1968-1981)
The papers of Robert McNamara, formerly US Secretary of Defense for Presidents Kennedy and Johnson,
largely begin in 1968 with the start of his tenure at the World Bank.
Address:
The Library of Congress
101 Independence Avenue, SE
Washington, D.C. 20540
United States of America
Phone:
(00) 1 202 707 5000
Hours:
Monday – Saturday, 8.30am – 5pm
Finding aid:
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.ms011085
FA (.pdf):
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.ms011085.3
91
IMF Managing Directors
Camille Gutt (1946-1951)
Ivar Rooth (1951-1956)
Per Jacobsson (1956-1963)
Pierre-Paul Schweitzer (1963-1973)
H. Johannes Witteveen (1973-1978)
Jacques de Larosière (1978-1987)
Michel Camdessus (1987-2000)
Horst Köhler (2000-2004)
Rodrigo de Rato (2004-2007)
Dominique Strauss-Kahn (2007-2011)
Christine Lagarde (2011- )
The papers of the Managing Directors of the IMF are largely held in the ‘Office of the Managing Director
Fonds’ at IMF headquarters. The fonds has a 900-page finding aid, and covers most of the office’s
activities from 1951 onwards. Other fonds at the IMF will also cover the Managing Directors’ activities.
Finding aid:
http://www.imf.org/external/np/arc/eng/fa/OMD/fa-omd.pdf
Camille Gutt (1946-1951)
Though there is not a great deal of interest to students of the IMF besides his correspondence from the
time, the papers of the IMF’s first Managing Director, Camille Gutt, are held at the Centre for Historical
Research and Documentation on War and Contemporary Society (Ceges-Soma) in Brussels.
Address:
CEGES-SOMA
Square de l’Aviation
1070 Brussels
Belgium
Phone:
(00) 32 2 556 92 11
Fax:
(00) 32 2 556 92 00
Email:
cegesoma@cegesoma.be
Hours:
Monday – Friday, 9am – 12am, 1pm – 5pm
A reading room card at CEGES-SOMA can be purchased for €1 (one week) or €2.50 (one year). Papers
are orderable at various points of the day.
Contacts:
http://www.cegesoma.be/cms/contacts_en.php
Finding aid (Fr): http://www.cegesoma.be/docs/Invent/Gutt_AA1624.pdf
92
Per Jacobsson (1956-1963)
Along with those papers held by the IMF, Per Jacobsson has left an unusually large documentary trail,
including a private diary. His papers are kept in Basel, split between the archive of the Bank of
International Settlements (see above), and Basel University.
Address:
Universitätsbibliothek Basel
Schönbeinstrasse 18-20
CH-4056 Basel
Switzerland
Phone:
(00) 41 61 267 31 00; (00) 41 61 267 31 30
Fax:
(00) 41 61 267 31 03
Email:
Contact form (De)
Hours (De):
Öffnungszeiten
Fonds (De):
http://aleph.unibas.ch/F/?local_base=DSV05&con_lng=GER&func=findb&find_code=SYS&request=000049876
The archive of Basel University maintains a website that is in German only, but should provide the
necessary details for potential researchers.
Homepage:
http://www.ub.unibas.ch/ub-hauptbibliothek/
Private archives: http://www.ub.unibas.ch/ub-hauptbibliothek/recherche/historischerbestand/nachlaesseprivatarchive/
93
WHO Directors-General
Brock Chisholm (1948-1953)
Marcolino Gomes Candau (1953-1973)
Halfdan T. Mahler (1973-1988)
Hiroshi Nakajima (1988-1998)
Gro Harlem Brundtland (1998-2003)
Lee Jong-wook (2003-2006)
Margaret Chan (2007- )
Other than any collections held at the WHO, few indeed of the Directors-General appear to have private
papers held by archives.
Brock Chisholm (1948-1953)
Chisholm was the Executive Secretary of the Interim Commission of the World Health Organization
(1946-1948), and then the WHO’s first Director-General. The small collection of Chisholm’s papers is held
by Library and Archives Canada. The archive contains mostly speeches, lectures, articles, and
correspondence.
Address:
Library and Archives Canada
395 Wellington Street
Ottawa, ON
K1A 0N4
Canada
Phone:
(00) 1 613 996 5115; (00) 1 866 578 7777
Fax:
(00) 1 613 995 6274
Hours:
Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 9am – 4pm; Tuesday, Thursday, 10am – 5pm
Potential researchers must first request a user’s card online, and then order a retrieval of documents
remotely via an online form.
Description:
http://collectionscanada.gc.ca/pam_archives/index.php?fuseaction=genitem.
displayItem&lang=eng&rec_nbr=98041&back_url=%28%29
94
Further Collections
There are several large archival collections that related to the United Nations and internationalism more
generally. This section of the guide is a far from complete miscellany that might be of use to scholars.
United Nations Oral History Project (Yale University, New Haven)
Sponsored by the Institution for Social and Policy Studies of Yale University, the United Nations Oral
History Project interviewed UN officials, ambassadors from various countries, and other participants in
events including the San Francisco conference on the founding of the UN, the founding of Israel and
subsequent Middle East wars, the Congo, Korea, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and many other topics.
The tapes and transcripts are available at the Sterling Memorial Library at Yale University. For more
information, see the entry for Javier Pérez de Cuéllar in this guide.
Finding aid:
http://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/mssa.ms.1703
FA (.pdf):
http://drs.library.yale.edu:8083/fedora/get/mssa:ms.1703/PDF
Further oral histories are available (at cost) as the result of the efforts of the United Nations Intellectual
History Project. The transcripts are available as a book, UN Voices, or CD. Interviewees including Kofi
Annan and other highly important officials.
UNIHP Orals: http://www.unhistory.org/oralhistory/
Interviewees:
http://www.unhistory.org/CD/list_of_interviewees.html
UN Voices:
http://www.unhistory.org/CD/un_voices.html
95
United Nations Career Records Project (Bodleian Library, Oxford)
http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/modpol/uncrp.htm
The UNCRP at the Bodleian Library brings together the private papers, memoirs, and interviews of many,
mostly British people intimately associated with the United Nations of NGOs working closely with it. The
collection includes papers of workers affiliated with the FAO, WHO, UNHCR, UNESCO, and ILO, as
well as papers relating to UNDP, UNCTAD, UNICEF, UN Statistics, and personal papers of officials.
There is a large collection on peacekeeping, including papers of workers and observers of the UN
operation in the Congo in the 1960s, as well as the UN Force in Cyprus.
Address:
Bodleian Library
Broad Street
Oxford
OX1 3BG
Phone:
(00) 44 1865 277162
Fax:
(00) 44 1865 277182
Hours:
Monday – Friday, 9am – 5pm; Saturday, 9am – 4.30pm; Sunday, 11am – 5pm
Scholars requiring more information should email modern.papers@bodley.ox.ac.uk. The papers of the
UNCRP are in addition to the vast holdings of the Bodleian itself, including innumerable collections of
interest to the international historian.
96
Aletta, Institute for Women’s History (Amsterdam)
http://www.aletta.nu/aletta/eng/collections/archieven
Aletta is an international archive of the women’s movement and other gender issues, located in
Amsterdam. It contains the papers of over 600 individuals and organizations, and may be of use for
scholars, though a lot of the collection relates to Dutch matters.
Address:
Aletta, Institute for Women’s History
Vijzelstraat 20
1017 Amsterdam
The Netherlands
Phone:
(00) 31 20 5611281
Email:
archief@aletta.nu
Hours:
Monday, 12pm – 5pm; Tuesday – Friday, 10am – 5pm
Overview:
http://www.aletta.nu/aletta/eng/collections/archieven_naam
Article on archive:
http://www.fragen.nu/aletta/mmbase/attachments/8334/moskou_artikel.pdf
97
Herbert H. Lehman Collections (Columbia University, New York)
http://library.columbia.edu/indiv/rbml/units/lehman.html
The Herbert H. Lehman Collections at Columbia University’s Rare Book & Manuscript Library mostly
concentrate on the papers of Lehman himself (a partner of Lehman Brothers, Governor of New York, US
Senator, and director of UNRRA), but also contain microfilms of the UNRRA papers held at UNARMS,
and the papers of four UNRRA officials other than Lehman: Hugh R. Jackson, Sir Robert G. A. Jackson,
Marshall McDuffie, and Richard B. Scandrett. The correspondence files of Lehman himself cover a great
deal of the most important politicians and other notables around and after the Second World War. The
collection as a whole is therefore an indispensable tool in looking at the UN’s early reconstruction efforts
in Europe.
Finding aids:
http://library.columbia.edu/indiv/rbml/units/lehman/guides.html
Further information of the Columbia Rare Book & Manuscript Library can be found in the entry for the
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, in this guide.
98
The National Archives (London)
This guide has not really attempted to delve into the innumerable papers on international organisations
held in national archives. However, the British National Archives (for more information, see the entry on
Gladwyn Jebb, above) have made two especially useful research guides on their primary materials. As an
example of what might be found, and what can be achieved by national archivists for international
historians, they are included here.
League of Nations:
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/research-guides/
league-of-nations.pdf
Britain in Europe:
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/research-guides/
international-organisations.htm