1917 | Fondation de la BDIC
Dès 1914, Louise Leblanc et son époux, Henri Leblanc, réunissent une documentation très variée sur le conflit. La collection Henri Leblanc est donnée à l'Etat en 1917 ; elle constitue le fonds d'origine de la Bibliothèque-musée de la Guerre qui aura, selon l'acte de donation, le double caractère d'être "un établissement scientifique et celui d'une oeuvre d'éducation populaire assurée par des expositions".
1925 | Installation de la Bibliothèque-musée dans le Pavillon de la Reine au château de Vincennes
Salle des affiches dans le musée (années 1920)
1944 | A la Libération, un incendie se déclare dans le donjon et le Pavillon de la Reine : une partie des collections est détruite
1970 | La bibliothèque est installée dans de nouveaux bâtiments sur le campus de Nanterre
1973 | Le musée est installé dans l'hôtel national des Invalides à Paris
? | Réunification de la bibliothèque et du musée
International appeal for a French Centre d'histoire internationale contemporaine
A
Support Network
for the reunification of the BDIC Library (Bibliothèque de
documentation internationale contemporaine - Paris, Nanterre) and its
Museum (Musée d'histoire contemporaine - Paris, Hôtel des
Invalides)
Freely
open to all readers - students, historians, academics, journalists, documentary
film makers, all those with an interest in contemporary history - the
BDIC is not only a library and a documentation centre, but also a focal
point for the diffusion of historical research, and a cultural institution
with an international role.
Bt its current physical division into two parts (Library and Museum) has
become a real obstacle to its future development and the fulfilment of
its original purpose.
The
BDIC was established in 1917, when a wealthy manufacturer, Henri Leblanc,
and his wife Louise, donated to the French State the extensive collections
that they had built up during the First World War in order to document
the conflict.
Subsequently affiliated to the University of Paris, it was a pioneering
institution, the only European library specialising in contemporary history.
The BDIC - as it became known - was the very first library in France to
collect all types of material: books in different languages, local, national
and international serials from around the world, iconographic material,
grey literature, personal papers, etc.
In 1944, towards the close of the Second World War, part of the BDIC collections
were destroyed by fire during the partial destruction of its premises,
then situated in the Chateau de Vincennes. Since then, the BDIC has been
divided into two parts, with the library on the University campus at Nanterre,
in the west of Paris, and the museum in central Paris, in the Hôtel
des Invalides.
BDIC's collections : the memory of the 20th Century
Today,
the BDIC is :
- A MULTIMEDIA LIBRARY, with hundreds of thousands of books, tens of thousands
of periodical titles and thousands of audiovisual documents recordings
(its ''Service audiovisuel'' also produces new oral history resources)
- A CENTRE FOR PRIVATE ARCHIVES, containing hundreds of private archival
collections from France and further afield, donated by NGOs, societies,
associations (in the field of human rights, for example), political movements,
prominent intellectual and political figures, actors in, and witnesses
of, contemporary events
- A MUSEUM, housing more than one million iconographic items (posters,
photographs, prints, drawings and paintings).
Among
its collections, the BDIC holds numerous unique documents, including the
very first issues of the soviet Pravda and of the daily Yiddish paper
Die Naïe Press, German anti-Nazi leaflets, copies of the clandestine
Algerian Moudjahid, the foundry proofs of the French censure of newspapers
in 1940, and many underground publications of the French Resistance during
the Second World War.
In the library, it is possible to see confidential US State Department
central files for the Middle-East (Iran, Irak, Palestine and Israël)
or CIA reports about the Cuban missile crisis; the archives of the French
''Ligue des droits de l'homme'' for the period 1898 to 1940; the personal
papers of Robert Aron (a French historian of the post-war period) or of
Michel Ossorguine (Bakounine's son-in-law); the photographic collection
gathered by the Sanitary Service of the International Brigades during
the Spanish Civil War; the main newspapers of the Balkans countries; archival
papers relating to the ''Condor Plan'' in Latin America, and many other
internationally important items.
Publicising
the collections
and communicating historical knowledge
The BDIC is at the head of an Institut Fédératif de Recherche (Federal Research Institute), through which it leads and co-ordinates collective research programs in contemporary history, organises regular conferences and seminars and publishes its scientific periodical, Matériaux pour l'histoire de notre temps.
Each year, it co-organises courses to introduce students and other researchers to the basics of historical research in archival and library collections.
The
Musée d'histoire contemporaine presents at least one temporary
exhibition each year on 20th century history, making a strong contribution
to the diffusion of historical knowledge on a variety of subjects.
Recently, these have included La Propagande sous Vichy (Propaganda under
the Vichy regime), La Déportation et le système concentrationnaire
nazi (Deportation and the Nazi concentration camp system), Mai 68. Les
mouvements étudiants en France et dans le monde (May 68 and the
student movement, in France and the world), Toute la France. Histoire
de l'immigration en France (A century of immigration in France), Voir
/ Ne pas voir la guerre. Histoire des représentations photographiques
de la guerre (The photographic representations of contemporary conflicts),
No pasarán ! Images des Brigades internationales dans la guerre
d'Espagne (A photographic history of the International Brigades during
the Spanish Civil War) and Droits de l'homme, combats du siècle
(Fighting for human rights in France during the 20th Century).
Next autumn, an exhibition is planned about Polish political posters from
the post war period to 2004.
The
BDIC has increasingly used new communication technologies to offer wider
access to its collections.
In 2004 it launched a substantial program for the digitisation of rare
and fragile documents. In the coming months, more than 12,000 digital
copies of unique documents will be made freely accessible on the Web,
including, for the First World War period, the personal papers of Paul
Mantoux (an historian who was one of the official interpreters at the
inter-allied conferences during the war), photographs of the Verdun battle,
collections of ''journaux de tranchées" (unofficial periodicals
written, designed, strikingly illustrated and published by soldiers in
the trenches) and drawings and paintings by Karl Lotze, Steinlen and Félix
Vallotton. For more recent times, a large proportion of the photographic
collection donated by Elie Kagan (a militant left-wing photographer, who
died in 1999, well-known in France for having been the only witness to
many significant French political events from the post-war period to the
80s) will also be digitised.
The BDIC also develops and manages its own publications program. It publishes collective volumes for each exhibition, catalogues of its collections, and has recently decided to co-produce printed editions of previously unpublished archives. In 2006 it will publish an edited version of the two first volumes of the Ringelblum archives on the Warsaw Ghetto.
Rich resources, insufficiently exploited
Although the Musée d'histoire contemporaine is the only museum in France dedicated to the broad spectrum of contemporary history, there is not enough room to present a permanent exhibition based on the BDIC's own collections.
Due to lack of space on the library premises, it has become difficult to provide adequate facilities for the public. The BDIC's main events programme (round-tables, conferences, colloquia, film projections) has to be organised in various off-site locations, which makes it difficult for the BDIC to raise its profile and encourage the use of its collections.
The division of the collections between library and museum - in effect a division between written documents and iconographic materials - makes it very difficult for readers to use the different types of historical resources in a coherent and co-ordinated manner.
At a time when contemporary history is at the core of many wider social debates, the rich BDIC collections should be able to provide French and international historians with a better understanding of crucial subjects, such as contemporary conflicts and their humanitarian effects, the Shoah and the other genocides, the soviet and the post-soviet world, colonialism and post-colonialism, and world migrations.
This is why the BDIC seeks your support for the reunification of its library and its museum and the fulfilment of its true role as an international centre for contemporary history.
The
reunification of the BDIC will help it to offer better facilities to its
many readers, historians and scholars, but also the wider public seeking
a better understanding of contemporary issues.
Almost a century after the creation of the BDIC, a new Centre d'histoire
internationale contemporaine will continue its original purpose into the
21st century.
Thanks
to public funding, a pre-program for the construction of a new building
has already begun and has been validated by all the relevant government
ministries and authorities.
The plan is for a new BDIC to be built in Nanterre, in a regeneration
zone situated between the University and the town, to form a new prestigious
scientific and cultural pole in western Paris.
Funding
must now be secured rapidly for the Centre d'histoire internationale contemporaine.
WE NEED YOUR HELP !
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