Letterenhuis
- AMVC-Letterenhuis
- Archief en Museum voor het Vlaamse Cultuurleven
- AMVC
- Archive and Museum for Flemish Cultural Life
Address
Phone
Fax
History
The ‘Museum van de Vlaamsche Letterkunde' [Museum of Flemish Literature] was founded in 1933. 75 years later, the Letterenhuis has grown into a literary archive centre for Flanders. It stimulates attention for the literary heritage and collects, preserves and makes accessible the archival and documentary heritage of literature in Flanders.
Mandates/Sources of Authority
The Letterenhuis is a municipal institution, financed by the city of Antwerp. When it was founded in 1933, however, it was given the assignment of collecting literature archive material from the whole of Flanders. The archive decree of 2002 offers the first opportunity of financial support from the Flemish government. On 1 January 2004, the AMVC-Letterenhuis was officially recognised as the cultural archive of Flemish literary heritage.
Archival and Other Holdings
The archive collection is rich and diverse. In addition to papers by Flemish writers, it holds archives of publishers, magazines, literary associations and the like. Together, all these archives account for more than 2 million letters and manuscripts.
The Letterenhuis not only has large and small archival files, it also has a number of specific collections: 130,000 photographs, 50,000 posters, statues, paintings and graphic work. There is also a very extensive collection of printed documents and cuttings from dailies and weeklies. However, it is important to note that cutting and documentation files about non-literary subjects are no longer systematically kept up to date.
Finding Aids, Guides, and Publication
Agrippa is the database of the Letterenhuis, developed in collaboration with the University of Antwerp; It has been available for online consultation since 1996. In the Agrippa database, users can look up the individuals, associations and subjects on which the Letterenhuis possesses archival and documentary material. Users can also search in the sub-catalogues for posters, letters, photos, manuscripts and iconography.
Agrippa can be accessed via the following link: http://anet.be/desktop/letterenhuis/
Opening Times
Monday to Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Items can be requested between 8.30 a.m. and 12 p.m. and between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. It is not necessary to have material retrieved in advance. Requested items are generally delivered within a quarter of an hour.
Conditions of Access
The reading room can be accessed free of charge.
Visitors can freely consult documentation, cuttings, photos and posters in the reading room. In some cases, permission from the archive creators or heirs may be required to consult letters and manuscripts.
Reproduction Services
Digital reproductions of photos, documentation and archive material from the Letterenhuis can be ordered.
The price is € 12 per image. For this price you will receive a high resolution image (300 dpi).
Special assignments (files with a printing size larger than A3-format at 300 dpi) require prior consultation. The price in this case depends on the working hours necessary to carry out your assignment.
For further information on the regulations governing reproductions see:
Sources
House of Literature website consulted on 23/07/2019
Pierre-Alain Tallier (dir.), Gertjan Desmet & Pascale Falek-Alhadeff, Sources pour l'histoire des populations juives et du judaïsme en Belgique/Bronnen voor de geschiedenis van de Joden en het Jodendom in België, 19de-21ste eeuw, Brussel, ARA-AGR/Avant-Propos, 2016, 1,328 p.