Atjeh-Album (Eigen Haard, 1896)

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tagsdocument, compilation, colonial, dutch, journalism, aceh, aceh-war, illustrated-periodical
aliasesAtjeh-Album, Atjeh Album of Eigen Haard, Eigen Haard Atjeh-Album, the Atjeh Album of 1896, Het Atjeh-Album van Eigen Haard

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The Atjeh-Album (Eigen Haard, 1896) — published by the N.V. Het Tijdschrift “Eigen Haard” of Amsterdam in 1896 — is a bound compilation of the illustrated articles that the weekly periodical Eigen Haard devoted to the events of Atjeh between April and June of that year. The compilation was edited under the direction of the periodical’s directie en redactie, with the principal historical narrative written by the oud-luitenant-kolonel of the Nederlandsch-Indisch leger, G. B. Hooyer, and with illustrations supplied by unnamed correspondents in both the Netherlands and Nederlandsch-Indië. As a contemporary account of Toekoe Oemar’s defection and the immediate military crisis it provoked — the sieges of Anagaloeng, Senelop, Biloel and Lamkoenjit — the Atjeh-Album is both a primary source for the spring 1896 operations and a self-conscious retrospective on the Atjeh-oorlog written for a Dutch popular readership.

A word beforehand

The album opens with a Een Woord Vooraf in which the editors explain that the compilation was prompted by the apparent interest of Eigen Haard’s readers in the spring 1896 events. The editors credit Hooyer — identified as an oud-luitenant-kolone van het N.-I. leger — for the principal narrative, and they acknowledge unnamed contributors in both the Netherlands and the Indies who supplied illustrations and copy. The preface expresses the hope that, should a second Atjeh-Album appear later in the year, it might speak “of an honourable and satisfactory solution of the question that for more than five-and-twenty years has kept every Dutch heart, in the fatherland as well as in the Indies, in sad suspense” — a direct reference to the Atjeh-oorlog that had begun in 1873.

Structure of the compilation

The album is organised as a series of illustrated essays rather than as a continuous chronicle. The principal sections, in order, are:

  • Nederland en Atjeh. Een Terugblik. Personen en Stelsels. Toekoe Oemar. — Zijn Verraad — a retrospective on Dutch policy in Atjeh from 1873 to 1896 framed around the personalities of successive governors and the shifting stelsels (systems) they pursued, culminating in the betrayal by Toekoe Oemar.
  • De Poeassa. Atjehers en Kafirs. Anagaloeng. Hoop en Vrees. Eindelijk Ontzet. Wat Reeds Verkregen Werd — an account of the poessa (fasting month) and its consequences for Dutch-Acehnese relations, followed by a narrative of the patrol of 7 March 1896 and the April relief of the besieged outposts.
  • Een Terugblik. Wat Atjeh Was en Hoe Wij Er Kwamen. Veldheeren en Staatslieden — a historical sketch of the sultanate before 1873 and of the First and Second Aceh Expeditions, with portraits of the principal Dutch commanders (Köhler, Van Swieten, Van der Heyden, Pel, Wichers van Kerchem, Diemont, Gey van Pittus, Verspyck).
  • De Inwendige Toestand. Kolonisten. Banda Atjeh. De Sultan. Imams en Oeloebalangs — an analysis of the internal constitution of pre-conquest Atjeh: the colonisation of the coasts from the valley of Groot-Atjeh, the position of the Sultan in Banda Atjeh, and the structure of the mukim-imam-oeloebalang hierarchy that produced the three Sagies (the XXII, XXV and XXVI Moekims).
  • De Geestelijkheid in Atjeh. Habib Abdoe’r Rachman. Teungkoe di Tiro. Wat Nu? — an extended biographical essay on Habib Abdoe’r Rachman and Teungkoe di Tiro as the two principal religious-political figures of the war, followed by an analysis of the policy options facing the Dutch in 1896.
  • Het Vertrek der Troepen naar Atjeh — an impressionistic sketch of the embarkation of reinforcements from the garrison towns of Batavia, Semarang and Soerabaja.
  • De Strijd om Kaloet (Eene herinnering uit den Atjeh-oorlog) — a retrospective narrative of the fighting around the Acehnese fortification of Kaloet in Augustus–October 1892 and of Toekoe Oemar’s bloodless capture of Kaloet in August 1893.
  • Gevallenen, hun Roeping Vervuld! — a roll of the officers killed in the spring 1896 operations, with portrait plates: Lieutenant Westendorp, Lieutenant Vuijk, Captain Geluk, Lieutenant Maarschalk, Lieutenant Zon, Captain Kramer and Lieutenant Krohne.
  • Een Trouwe Inlander — a tribute to Toekoe Ketjik Oemar, the Acehnese auxiliary who warned the Dutch of Djohan’s planned attack.
  • Onze Stelling op Groot-Atjeh — a fold-out map (scale 1:80 000) of the Dutch lines around Kota Radja in 1896.

Hooyer’s authorship

The narrative voice of the album is consistently that of Hooyer — a retired lieutenant-colonel of the N.-I. army who, in the editors’ phrase, brought to the articles “his rich experience of Indian affairs and his talent as a writer.” Hooyer’s perspective is that of a military intellectual of the late-nineteenth-century colonial army: he is critical of the concentratie-stelsel of 1884–1896, sceptical of civil administration, and openly admiring of the kloek, doortastend (bold, decisive) generalship of Karel van der Heyden. He is also notable for treating the Acehnese adversary with measured respect — the album’s biographical portrait of Toekoe Oemar acknowledges his beschaafde manieren (civilised manners) and gaven … als aanvoerder (gifts as a commander), even as it condemns his trouweloosheid (faithlessness).

Illustrations

The Atjeh-Album was issued as a lavishly illustrated volume — the principal selling-point of Eigen Haard as a popular periodical — and many of its images are reproduced from photographs taken by officers serving in Atjeh. Photographs attributed in the captions include Coll. K. I. (the Koloniaal Instituut collection), Coll. Kol. Inst. (idem), Coll. Kol. Inal. (the Koloniaal Instituut voor Nederlandsch-Indië), and Majoor van der Noot (a photographic donation by that officer). Subjects include: views of the Pinus Merkusii forests of Atjeh (in the supplementary Atjeh-Terpentijn material); the benting of Anagaloeng; the interior and exterior of the old and new terpentijn factories at Baleq; portraits of the principal Dutch commanders; the Zuiderface of the Kraton; an Acehnese handels- of rooverspraauw lying in the inham behind Oleh-leh; the [benting Kaloet|Kaloet]] from inside and outside; and a map of the Dutch stelling on Groot-Atjeh at scale 1:80 000.

The supplemental Atjeh-Terpentijn pamphlet

Bound with some copies of the album — and produced by the same Amsterdam publisher in the same general period — is an extract from De Indische Mercuur of 19 November 1930 by Ir. W. Spoon on the tegenwoordige kwaliteit en nieuwe beoordeelingen of Atjeh-turpentine. The pamphlet is Berichten van de Afdeeling Handelsmuseum van de Kon. Vereeniging Koloniaal Instituut No. 57, and it is described in a separate article, Atjeh-terpentijn (Spoor, 1930).

Significance

The Atjeh-Album is significant in the historiography of the Atjeh-oorlog as one of the earliest illustrated popular accounts of the 1896 crisis — predating by half a century the more analytical parliamentary history of Vermeulen in the *Schets* of Rengers-Vermeulen. Its narrative of the April relief and of the battle of Tjot Rang is the principal source for several of the operational details preserved in this wiki, and its biographical essays on Habib Abdoe’r Rachman and Teungkoe di Tiro — although derivative of Snouck Hurgronje — record a popular-Dutch reading of those figures that is itself a historical document. The album’s editorial stance — patriotic but not uncritical, admiring of Acehnese martial qualities but convinced of the justice of the Dutch cause — is the characteristic register of late-nineteenth-century Dutch colonial journalism on Atjeh.

See Also

Source

Atjeh-Album van Eigen Haard, uitgave van de Naamlooze Vennootschap Het Tijdschrift “Eigen Haard”, Amsterdam, 1896. Met tekst van oud-luitenant-kolonel G. B. Hooyer en illustraties van ongenoemde medewerkers in Nederland en Nederlandsch-Indië. Source OCR: 20260715_163243_DLP-86-Atjeh_album.pdf, 40 pages.

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