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The volunteers started working on a new project at the City
Archives (now called the Felixarchives) in October 2009. It
concerned an iconographic collection of documents about Antwerp in
general. The project was done under the guidance Joost Depuydt
(collection manager at the city archives). We had to check the old
inventory numbers, give new numbers, measure the documents, check
their condition and pack the documents in different sized (from A4
to A0), acid free paper. To check the condition of the documents, we
received examples and looked at pictures in a specialized book,
which stayed with us at our assigned large working table. |
Sorting the documents by size |
Above: 6 volunteers working at the long table.
Right: Checking the documents Below (left and right): Measuring
the documents |
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Above: Checking the old inventory. |
Above: Recording the measurements of the documents and assigning new
numbers. |
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The first documents were architectural plans of the quay walls along
the Schelde, the iron covers on the quays, the quays of the
‘Bonaparte’ and ‘Willem’ docks, the surrounding buildings, the
cranes, the lock and the plans of the first enlargement of the
dockland to the north and the connection to the Albert Canal. In
December, we started with an iconographic collection of old Antwerp
cloister buildings. In 2010 we came upon a collection of
architectural plans of the Central Station, first called
‘Ooststatie’ because it was build to the east of the city walls. |
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Later we came across a very large collection of the Antwerp Water
System (some in very poor condition) including a large number of
engineering plans and designs (pumps, pump stations, waterways etc).
Nicer to work with were the maps of Antwerp (some very old, some
more resent, some extremely clear), the lay-outs and drafts for the
different world exhibitions in Antwerp (1885, 1894 and 1930) and for
the sport infrastructure of the 1920 Olympic Games.
The prints and maps of old buildings such as the Rubens House,
the Rockox House, the Stock Exchange, etc. were all very
interesting.
One volunteer input all the new inventory numbers and the
condition of the documents into an Excel sheet. (41 ico numbers and
5547 new inventory numbers) |
Above: A picture of the old Antwerp Stock Exchange.
(Handelsbeurs) |
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Above: an 18th century map of Antwerp. |
Above: Detail
from an old map of Antwerp. |
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We are glad to have found one of our new volunteers to be
very knowledgeable in
paper types and paper restoration.
Right: Drawing of a corner house with writing in old Dutch. |
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Above: The entrance to Central Station in Antwerp. |
Above: Drawing of the bridge of the river Rupel at Boom. |
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We worked on Thursday mornings from 9.30 to 12.30, with
a coffee break in the cafeteria with the marvellous view over the
‘Willem’ dock, the MAS (at that time still under construction) and the
‘Kattendijk’ dock. Left: Taking a break in the cafeteria.
Below: Wintry scenes from the cafeteria in
January 2010. |
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The project ended in October 2010 and the City archivist Mrs Inge
Schoups assembled her full team for a reception at which she
expressed her thanks to the volunteers and we all received a
marvellous bouquet of flowers. |
