H. van Meurs

Properties2
tagsperson, scholar, dutch, colonial, bibliography, ethnology, koninklijk-instituut, 1940
aliasesH. van Meurs, Van Meurs, Hendrik van Meurs, Drs. H. van Meurs

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H. van Meurs was the Dutch compiler of the fourth annual Literatuur-Overzicht (literature survey) of the Koninklijke Vereeniging Koloniaal Instituut, namely the Literatuur-Overzicht over het jaar 1939 van de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde en Geschiedenis van Nederlandsch-Indië, published in ‘s-Gravenhage by M. Nijhoff in 1940. His name is associated with the Institut’s bibliographic project at its wartime apogee — the moment at which the survey reached its largest extent (c. 1,100 entries, 270 periodicals) despite the “bijzondere tijdsomstandigheden” (special wartime conditions) of the German occupation of the Netherlands.

The Literatuur-Overzicht project

The Literatuur-Overzicht was the Koninklijk Instituut’s annual record of books and periodical contributions — with the explicit exclusion of daily newspapers — on the philology, geography, ethnology, and history of the Netherlands Indies, together with the colonial history of the Netherlands. The 1939 survey, the fourth in the series (4e jaarlijksche), was significantly larger than its two predecessors: c. 70 additional periodicals had been consulted, bringing the total to 270, while the number of literature entries rose from c. 800 to nearly 1,100. The growth reflected both the expanding scholarly output on the Indies and the Institut’s sustained bibliographic effort.

Van Meurs’s Voorbericht (foreword) to the 1940 volume frames the project in terms that situate it squarely within the wartime Dutch colonial imagination. The Institut issued the volume, Van Meurs writes, “in de overtuiging, dat de bijzondere tijdsomstandigheden niet den minsten ongunstigen invloed mochten uitoefenen op het verschijnen van deze publicatie, welker inhoud als het ware een exponent is van de groote beteekenis van Nederland-Overzee en van de grootsche taak, wetenschappelijk en nationaal in den ruimsten zin, welke Groot-Nederland er doorlopend en in onverstoorbare mate vervult” — in the conviction that the special wartime circumstances should not exert the slightest unfavourable influence on the appearance of this publication, the content of which is, as it were, an exponent of the great significance of Netherlands-Overseas and of the grand task, scientific and national in the widest sense, which Greater Netherlands continuously and uninterruptedly fulfils. The framing is characteristic of the wartime Institut’s posture: the continuation of colonial scholarship as a national duty under occupation.

Method

Van Meurs states that “er is bij de samenstelling naar volledigheid gestreefd, met vermijding nochtans van overlading” — completeness was sought, while avoiding overloading. Several literature numbers from the preceding year that had not been recorded in the previous survey were included retrospectively. Entries relevant to the Netherlands Indies but without direct connection to it were marked with an asterisk. Even publications not strictly belonging to the fields covered were included when they could, “hetzij door inhoud, hetzij door illustratieve documentatie, bijdragen tot de kennis van land en volk” — whether by content or by illustrative documentation, contribute to the knowledge of land and people; for this reason even Indische sketches and novels were not left unmentioned.

The survey was compiled with extensive use of the richly-stocked Koloniale Bibliotheek (Colonial Library) of the Institut at ‘s-Gravenhage (Van Galenstraat 14), which was continuously expanded with the latest colonial literature. Van Meurs invited authors and publishers to deposit a copy of every work of colonial importance with the Colonial Library, so that it might come under many eyes and at the same time promote the compilation of a survey as complete and accurate as possible. The Institut also held an important collection of manuscripts, photographs, plates, and maps, all at the disposal of members; bookworks were lent to members throughout the country, only porto being charged.

The Atjeh content of the 1939 survey

The Atjeh-related content of the 1939 survey, which is the basis of Van Meurs’s significance for AcehWiki, is concentrated in the Sumatra chapter (Hoofdstuk III, Nos. 548–658) and the Sumatra Addenda (Nos. 1056–1062). It includes the Bannink excerpts from the Atjeh-oorlog (No. 550), the Brandhof note on land reclamation on Atjeh’s Westkust in 1902 (No. 557), the da Costa survey of the Padrie-oorlog (No. 558), the Damsté edition of the Seven Sleepers legend in Atjehsch (Nos. 560, 570), the Doorman notice of the death of the ex-pretender Sultan Toeanangkoe Mohammad Dawat (No. 563), the Geusau and Harders accounts of the van Daalen campaign of 1904 (Nos. 566, 568), the Jongejans survey of Land en volk van Atjeh vroeger en nu (No. 571) and its companion piece on the Taboet- of Hasji-Hosseinfeest (No. 571a), the Linden commemoration of the third centenary of the Atjeh martyrs (Nos. 581, 1059), the Tichelmann note on glass jugs excavated in Atjeh (No. 625), and the Wessels survey of Atjeh in the 16th and 17th centuries (No. 652). The Algemeen chapter likewise contains Atjeh-related material: the Encyclopaedie van Nederlandsch-Indië supplement (No. 89) records entries for Atjeh and Koetaradja.

Significance

For AcehWiki, Van Meurs’s significance is that of the compiler of the principal bibliographic record of the 1939 state of scholarship on Atjeh. His survey furnishes the bibliographic coordinates by which the 1939 Atjeh scholarship may be located within the wider landscape of Netherlands Indies philology, geography, ethnology, and history, and it is the source for every entry in this corpus that draws on the 1939 Literatuur-Overzicht. The wartime context of the compilation — the fourth annual survey, issued under German occupation — gives the work an additional significance as a document of the persistence of Dutch colonial scholarship under the conditions that would, within five years, end the colonial state itself.

See Also

Source

Literatuur-Overzicht over het jaar 1939 van de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde en Geschiedenis van Nederlandsch-Indië, door H. van Meurs, uitgegeven door het Koninklijk Instituut voor de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië te ‘s-Gravenhage (‘s-Gravenhage: M. Nijhoff, 1940). Voorbericht, Hoofdstuk III (Sumatra en naburig gebied, Nos. 548–658), Addenda (Nos. 1056–1062), en Index.

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