MESSAGE FROM THE NATIONAL ARCHIVIST Dr Charles J. Farrugia The activity of the national archives is ever going and annually we publish our metrics in terms of holdings, services and main achievements. Through this newsletter we have always tried to disseminate further information about our activity to the general public, away from the detailed statistics that we reserve for the annual report. The last years witnessed concerted effort on the records management dimension of the institution. This resulted in the setting up of a system of qualified records officers in government ministries in line with the obligations of the National Archives Act. Apart from the in-house training this entailed, the continuous support on the Board of Studies and the provision of lecturing at the University of Malta, we formally established the Forum of Records Officers. This infrastructure aims to convene records officers on a bi-monthly basis with the aim of sharing expertise, guiding members on matters of implementation and maintaining a national standard of good practice. When it comes to training, during the last two years the Department of Library, Information and Archive Sciences at the University of Malta also set up a Masters qualification in Melitensia and Documentary Heritage. It is also encouraging that a number of students reading for the Dip.ARM, B.KIM and Masters in the same department are opting to do their practicum or selecting a topic for their long essays or dissertations focused on archival themes. Our vision of training does not focus only of University level training. We kept our long standing working relation with other educational institutions such as Giovanni Curmi Higher Secondary and a large number of international educational institutions.
The first six month of 2017 provided us with a European platform of activity as we hosted and organised eight meetings related to Malta’s presidency of the Council of the European Union. It is with great pride and satisfaction that I report that although our institution is the smallest EU national archive (both in terms of HR and funding levels) we were the only country to commit ourselves to organise the full range of meetings possible including the Conservators’, EUDiA, DLM Forum and a Strategic Meeting touching on the topic of Migration and Culture by EUROPEANA. All this international activity on home ground did not stagger our local outreach activities. We embarked on a series of TV information slots and kept our participation in local book fairs and cultural events. This visibility was rewarded by a constant flow of private bequests. Topping the list in national importance were the papers of Prime Minister Dom Mintoff and of the first President of the Republic of Malta Sir Anthony Mamo. As important were papers by several personalities such as Vincenzo Maria Pellegrini, Louis Curmi and others. Our vision for years to come is as thrilling as ever before. There is now a political commitment that our country will invest in a state of the art national archive building. This should also house in it a national audiovisuals institute geared towards the preservation of the country’s audio-visual heritage. The coming year will also witness the official inauguration of the rebranded national memory project in the form of MEMORJA. The employment of five fully qualified members of staff to focus on MEMORJA guided academically by Professor John Chircop made it possible for us to upgrade our infrastructure as a memory capturing institution. This allowed us to steer our vision away from the narrow public records only perspective to one where the public really meets the private. It is only through such an approach that we can really fulfil our mission of preserving a holistic ‘collective memory of the Maltese nation’.
Opening Hours Head Office Hospital Street, Rabat RBT 1043. Tel (+356)2145 9863 Mon, Tue, Wed, Fri: 8.00am – 2.00pm Thu: 10.00am – 2.00pm & 3.00pm – 7.30pm (excl. Aug) Sat: 8.15am – 12.45pm Legal Documentation Section Villegaignon Street, Mdina MDN 1193. Tel (+356)2145 9919 Mon: 10.00am – 2.00pm & 3.00pm – 7.30pm Tue, Wed, Fri: 8.00am – 2.00pm Thu: 10.00am – 2.00pm Sat: closed
Published by the National Archives of Malta The national entity responsible for archives and records management E.mail: customercare.archives@gov.mt Website: www.nationalarchives.gov.mt
Editor: Charles J Farrugia Gozo Section ISSN 1605-7058 Vajringa Street, Victoria VCT 1313. Tel (+356)2155 8833 Mon to Fri: 7.30am – 1.30pm Sat: 8.15am – 1.00pm Designed and Printed at the Government Printing Press - Marsa
Legal Documentation Section During the past months, 265 metres of shelving holding around 1837 boxes of records entitled ‘Processi Appelli Civili’ and ‘Concorsi, Libelli and Deroghe’ dated 1814 to 1899 were cleaned up, sorted chronologically and re-boxed. The long and painstaking task was carried out with the kind assistance of various local students reading for a degree in Archives studies and from foreign students who were pursuing their internship at the Legal Documentation Section at the Banca Giuratale, Mdina. The foreign students were Justina Aleksejūnaitė and Erika Klebavičiūtė from Lithuania, Tjaša Kokol and Kaja Skrt from Slovenia, and Leonita Halitjaha and Nazim Üstündag from Berlin, Germany. Other tasks conducted in these internships included the pagination of the Original Acts of the Officium Bullae SSma. Crociatae; and sorting and cataloguing the bundles of ‘Suppliche’ related to the Magnia Curiae Castellania dated 1730 to 1798.
Medieval Mdina Festival 2017 For the ninth consecutive year, the Banca Giuratale, Mdina opened its doors for the annual Medieval Mdina Festival organized by the Mdina Local Council and the Malta Tourism Authority which during these years has attracted thousands of visitors and foreign enthusiasts.This year, the National Archives presented an exhibition of artistic designed panels of the 1953 Architectural Competition for the Reconstruction of the Royal Opera House. The documentary exhibition which also included samples of operatic music scores which were represented in the then Royal Opera House, commemorated 75 years when the theatre was devastated by Luftwaffe bombers in April 1942.
Digital Photography in the Reading Rooms From September 2017 the National Archives of Malta introduced a new policy allowing researchers to use digital photography in the reading rooms at the Head Office Rabat, Banca Giuratale Mdina and the Gozo Repository. This measure is intended to assist patrons in their research and from the feedback received it was much appreciated. The advances made in digital equipment nowadays make it is quite easy to take digital photos without damaging the documents.
EU Presidency-related Activities During the Maltese Presidency of the Council of the European Union, the National Archives played their part in the organisation, the hosting and the running of several meetings.
9th Meeting of European Heads Conservation, 4 and 5 May 2017
of
This year it was the turn of the National Archives of Malta to host the 9th Meeting of European Heads of Conservation. This meeting brings together leading conservators from various European Union member states to discuss various topics and developments related to conservation of archival holdings.
35th Conference of the European Board of National Archivists and the 22nd Meeting of the European Archives Group, 27 and 28 April The meeting was spread on two days, the 4th and 5th of May and was held at the National Archives Head 2017 Office in Rabat. 21 delegates from 16 countries discussed a draft Manual for First Line of Conservation before Digitisation and the challenges associated with work on documents with Iron Gall Ink.
The National Archives of Malta organised and hosted the 35th Conference of the European Board of National Archivists (EBNA) and the 22nd Meeting of the European Archives Group (EAG) on the 27 and 28 April 2017.
The discussion on the first topic centred on contributions from each delegate with the aim of producing a Common Manual of Guidelines for Conservation Procedures on Archival Material before Digitising. All participants aired their views and expounded on the approach of their institution when it comes to basic conservation interventions on material before embarking on a program of digitisation of a collection. A working committee was appointed to gather and edit the contributions with a target to have the manual ready by next year’s meeting in spring.
The Board of National Archivists is the forum where the directors of national archives in the European Union share experiences and good practices. It also provides an opportunity for enhanced collaboration between the institutions responsible for the safeguarding of the memory of EU nations. On the other hand, the European Archives Group is a formal expert body of the EU advising and formulating policy on record keeping and archival practice. The preservation of electronic records, digitisation, emerging data protection legislation theft and the relationship between national archives and the European Union were included in the agenda of the Malta meetings.
The second topic to be discussed was challenges associated with work on Documents with Iron Gall Ink. Three presentations dealing with this subject were delivered by Mr Simon Dimech, conservator at the National Archives of Malta, Dr Jedert Vodopivec Tomazic from the National Archives of Slovenia and Ms Anna Czajka from the Polish National Archives. A healthy discussion followed these presentations.
Records management challenges in a hybrid environment. DLM Forum, 10 and 11 May 2017
“Migration and Culture: how can our past educate our present?” Annual Europeana presidency event, 23 and 24 May 2017 The National Archives were heavily involved in the organisation of the annual Europeana presidency event that was held on 23 and 24 May at Ħaġar Qim’s Visitors’ Conference centre that dealt with “Migration and Culture: how can our past educate our present?” This high-level strategy meeting was primarily targeted at policymakers of EU member states as a means to raise awareness about what Europeana does in culture and education, and how it can help them in their own work.
On the 10 and 11 May, the Document Life Cycle Management (DLM) Forum Foundation met the twoday members’ meeting held twice a year in order to exchange experiences and ideas on current trends of establishing comprehensive information governance over digital records. The National Archives of Malta, a forum member, organised this meeting at the Augustinian Priory in Rabat to provide a forum for all stakeholders involved in the digital domain where they may share information about the latest developments and good practice focussing on the digital divide and discuss measures to bridge the gap between the traditional way of managing records and the emerging automated environment. Besides promoting good practice and the expertise derived from projects such as the E-ARK software tools developed by partners in the sector, the forum offered experts from industry, government and archives with similar responsibilities in information governance with exceptional networking opportunity. The Maltese dimension in terms of the lifecycle of records and the digital challenge was presented during the first session of the DLM Forum by MITA, the Document Management Services of Maltapost plc, and Aqubix.
The main objective was to come up with concrete suggestions on how cultural heritage institutions and ministries of culture can actively help educate students, and more broadly European citizens, about migration. It was also an opportunity to highlight a number of case studies from across Europe demonstrating the potential opportunities of migrants’ experience and expertise in the creation of cultural heritage and education.
EU Archivists of Diplomatic Archives Meeting, 15 and 16 June 2017 The National Archives involvement in the EU Presidency events came to an end while hosting the second day of the EU Archivists of Diplomatic Archives’ meeting (EUDiA) at its head office. Following a presentation on archives in Malta, the participants visited the Legal Documentation Section of the National Archives and the Cathedral Archives in Mdina.
MEMORJA Oral, Sound and Visual Archive
On 22 March 2004 the then President of Malta, His Excellency Prof. Guido de Marco inaugurated the National Memory Project at the Legal Documentation Section of the National Archives, housed at the Banca Giuratale in Mdina. That event marked the start of an extensive and ambitious project aimed at bringing under one roof the Maltese Islands’ national and public memory. Late last year, the National Archives of Malta started developing the National Memory into MEMORJA, an oral, sound and visual archive. The main objective of this project is to employ cutting edge research, methodologies, theoretical and archival approaches and techniques to collect, record, transcribe, preserve and make available and retrievable all deposited material detailing the Islands’ history. MEMORJA will be the national depositor of community memory, sound and oral traditions. While the Project does not exclude any recordings/records of any genre whatsoever, themes have been selected on which to focus through oral history fieldwork. A team composed of James Baldacchino, Sandra Blake, Melvin Caruana, Aidan Celeste and Irene Sestili has been set up to work on this project. The fieldwork is moving on at a steady pace: oral history interviews, documents and personal photographs and are being added to this archive.
British expatriates in Malta The history of the relationship between the United Kingdom and Malta is a fundamental one, and one which has not previously been documented through the eyes of British and Maltese individuals. This theme includes interviews with British and BritishMaltese people who were either in the British forces during the 1960s (or their spouses) and remained in Malta, or civilians who married a Maltese person and relocated to Malta. Interviewees discuss life on the bases, everyday life in 1950s/60s/70s Malta, political issues, relationships and cultural differences. Where interviews were impossible, written accounts were sent. Many include an array of vibrant photographs.
Public Administration Through the memories of civil servants, one can get a glimpse of what happened behind the scenes during the most important political, social and economic decisions undertaken by Maltese political leaders. Memories regarding the dismantling of the British military base in 1979 and how the Maltese prepared for such an event, membership in the EU and how it affected the civil service, the challenges faced in the preparation for the Census of 1985, the work involved in the Reform of the Corrective Facilities and the migration of the hospital from St. Lukes to Mater Dei, all came out from these oral reminisences.
Experiencing War: survival, shelter and food With this thematic research group, the NAM and MEMORJA aim to document the turbulent years of wartime Malta through photographs and oral testimonies, as experienced by the people who lived through the threeyear-long siege. Stories of the outbreak of hostilities and the first bombings on the 11th of June 1940 are still rife in interviewees’ memories, whereas mass evacuations, the refugee experience, fear and uncertainty, the Victory Kitchens, racketeering, hunger, sanitation, shelters, soldiers and sirens are still recalled with clarity and confidence. These recollections serve to bring forth daily occurrences as experienced by the locals: history from the ground up.
Lampedusa and Malta Lampedusa and Malta are bearers of different political histories, though to some extent they share similar economic, trade and socio-cultural interests. Though a Maltese family had repopulated the island after 1803, until now there has been no attempt to orally interview Lampedusans about their connection(s) to Malta. There are two time frames to investigate which connect their shared history: - From 1800 to 1843 Lampedusa was colonised by Maltese settlers, working in agriculture and animal husbandry. Today, two families remain: the de Battistas and the Caruanas. - Connections and trade links between the two Islands between the 1950s and 1980s. Testimonies of Lampedusani fishermen who regularly visited Malta for the maintenance of ships, the sale of blue fish, and the provision of supplies.
John Agius Collection
Dom Mintoff Collection
Louis Curmi Collection
National Archives of Malta - Gozo Section Exhibition
On the occasion of the twenty-seventh anniversary of the opening of the National Archives, and coinciding with the Archives Awareness Week, the Gozo Section (NAG) mounted the exhibition Historical niches of Gozo. The annual exhibition has a twofold scope. The first is to showcase the holdings at the NAG to the general public and, the second, to highlight one or more aspects of the heritage of Gozo. The exhibition – the fifteenth to be organized by the NAG – concentrated on the historical niches scattered throughout the city, the villages, and the hamlets of Gozo. A total of fifty-four niches were exhibited – three from each village and hamlet. The history of the majority is unknown, but a number are well-documented in the holdings of the NAG and other archives. All the photos were taken by Paul Falzon, a member of the staff, and at the close of the exhibition they were deposited in the PA fond – the Photography section at the NAG – to serve as a record for the future. The star exhibit was the painting of Nuestra Señora de la Soledad (dated 1559), formerly venerated at the entrance to the Ċittadella, the oldest documented niche in Gozo. The painting, now at the Cathedral Museum, was exhibited courtesy of the Gozo Cathedral Chapter.
The exhibition was inaugurated by the Honorable Dr Anton Refalo, Minister for Gozo, on 12 October 2016 and it ran until 19 November. The exhibition received a wide coverage on local television and printed media. As a result, it was visited by a satisfactory number of visitors, both foreigners and locals. An exhibition catalogue and a commemorative card were also published for the occasion. These were partly sponsored through a grant by HSBC-GOZO and by the fourteen local councils of Gozo and the administrative council of Santa Luċija. The full-colour catalogue with detailed information on the exhibits as well as on the NAG is the fifteenth catalogue published by the NAG; the commemorative card is the ninth in the series. A total of twenty-nine cards have been issued by the NAG so far.
Donations The most important donation to the NAG in the past months was made by Maria Mifsud-Bonnici, wife of ex-Chief Justice Giuseppe Mifsud-Bonnici, and daughter of former Justice Giuseppe Cremona. The donation consists of seventy-one volumes of original judgments delivered by her father and grandfather. A new fond, the Cremona Collection was created with these items and it was divided into four sections: (1) Paolo Cremona – Sentenze Corte Civile (1873-1904); (2) Giuseppe Cremona – Sentenze Corte Civile (1905-1927); (3) Giuseppe Cremona – Sentenze Prim’Aula (1919-1927); and (4) Miscellanea. This donation was made after contacts by the Assistant National Archivist with the family and through the collaboration of Ivan Ellul.
P. Calleja delivering a political meeting from a plinth at It-Tokk (Pjazza Indipendenza) on 8 October 1909. The election took place on 11-12 October – one of the earliest known postcards by Amateur Studio of Michele Farrugia (donated G. Azzopardi).
The Hon. Dr Anton Refalo, Minister for Gozo at the opening of the exhibition. with from left to right Anton Tabone KOM, exMinister for Gozo and ex-Speaker; Joseph Scerri, standing for Dr Charles Farrugia, National Archivist; and Dr Joseph Bezzina, Assistant National Archivist.
Dr George Azzopardi of Ta’ Sannat, whom we congratulate in graduating Ph.D. in Archaeology, proceeded to donate old photos and old postcards of Gozo that he purposely purchases from collectors for the NAG. Charles Bezzina of Victoria-Gozo enriched the section related to the World Wars in Gozo, created through his donations, by more photos.
New Deposit The NAG succeeded to get a second deposit annexed to the Għarb Primary School. NAG DEPOSIT 01 and NAG DEPOSIT 02 make it possible to accept further deposits from Government Departments. The least consulted items are now held at the NAG DEPOSIT 01 that was used as from 7 January 2013 and has a capacity of 296 metres. The new NAG DEPOSIT 02 was refurbished and became available in December 2016; it has 266 metres of shelving. NAG DEPOSIT 02 was formally transferred to the NAM and it will be jointly administered by the NAG and by the Notarial Archives. In agreement with the Ministry for Gozo, the registers of the Notarial Archives held in inadequate and precarious storage at the Ministry for Gozo, were transferred to NAG DEPOSIT 02. A total of 1806 notarial registers were deposited.
During 2016, the Ministry for Gozo purchased a total of four map cabinets for the NAG; two were housed at the NAG DEPOSIT 02, and another two at the NAG Victoria.
Għarb Deposit 02
Records Management Unit During 2016 and 2017 the Records Management Unit (RMU) has been busy on various fronts. Mainly in the drafting and implementing of official retention policies concerning public records, appraisal of expired or dormant records and organising the accession process of historical records from government offices by the National Archives.
Among the most recent accessions that were coordinated by the Records Management Unit there are the technical and administrative records of the Marsa PowerPlant from Enemalta, the historical records of the Office of the President of the Republic, records from the Economic Policy Department and the Public Registry Card Index from Identity Malta.
In November 2016 the first Records Officers were placed within a selected number of Ministries. Although these Records Officers are employed directly by the respective ministries, their duties are coordinated by the RMU so that all activity is in line with the remit of the National Archives Act. In order to do so the Records Officers Forum has been established and sessions are periodically held. During these sessions, the Records Officers meet and share their experiences and the issues that they are concerened with. The sessions are chaired by the National Archivist and assisted by the Records Management Unit. Transfering process of the Marsa Powerplant Records to the National Archives Repository
The RMU is also directly involved in the assesment and transferring of private deposits. Most recent example of major private deposits of records at the National Archives include the personal records of Sir Anthony Mamo, the Perit Dom Mintoff Collection. The participants of the 4th session of the Records Officers Forum that was held on the 21 August 2017
Archives Awareness Week 2017 The 2017 Archives Awareness Week was held between 23 and 27 October and the theme was ‘The Archive: the Meeting Place of the Public and the Private. Besides the donation of the Mamo Private Papers Collection the highlights were a public lecture and an international symposium.
Annual Public Lecture 2017: Collecting literary archives and other private papers in Commonwealth countries. 25 October 2017 Dr David Sutton, Director of Research Projects in Reading University Library since 1982, delivered this lecture where he dealt mainly with three themes: primary sources for the study of literature; the diasporic nature of literary manuscripts; and the impact of the diaspora on the English-speaking world, in general, and the Commonwealth, in particular. After describing some general characteristics of literary manuscripts, focusing in particular on their diasporic nature, Dr Sutton outlines the work of the project known as the Diasporic Literary Archives Network between 2012 and 2015. He concluded with an assessment of the archival diaspora as it affects cultural and literary heritage work in Commonwealth countries. Dr Sutton studied literature and librarianship at British and Irish universities and then food history at the Université de Paris-VIII in the 1970s. He is editor of the Location Register of English Literary Manuscripts and UK editor of the WATCH website (Writers Artists & Their Copyright Holders) and Chair of the Section for Archives of Literature and Art (SLA) within the International Council on Archives, and co-ordinator of the Diasporic Literary Archives Network. He has published extensively on literary manuscripts, on archival ethics and on copyright. His other interests include food history and writing about food, local politics, and public transport.
ACARM Symposium, Imaging Imperialism. 27 October 2017 On the World Day for Audiovisual Heritage (27 October), the National Archives of Malta hosted the Association of Commonwealth Archivists and Records Managers’ (ACARM) 2017 symposium ‘Imaging Imperialism’ on 2017 with the support of the European Branch of the International Council on Archives (EURBICA). The development of audiovisual technologies coincided with British imperialism in such a way that the height of the empire is documented in drawings and photographs while motion picture captured the end of empire and the birth of newly independent nations across the world. Audiovisual materials are therefore important resources for the study of imperialism in the modern period, its pretensions, impacts, legacies and contemporary manifestations. Minister Evarist Bartolo and Dr Esther Olembe, the Director of the National Archives of Cameroon addressed the symposium, followed by Njördur Sigurdsson, the Director of Acquisition and Access at the National Archives of Iceland who delivered the keynote address. Five presentations by Maltese and foreign speakers explored the preservation and use of audiovisual archives across the Commonwealth, with a focus on what they can tell us about the nature and vestiges of imperialism.
Preservation of Malta’s audio-visual heritage The National Archives of Malta will co-ordinate a digitisation programme for long-term preservation of Malta’s audio-visual heritage. On 12 April 2017, a collaborative agreement was signed between the National Archives, the Broadcasting Authority, the Department of Information, Malta Libraries, MCAST, the University of Malta and PBS to ensure the preservation and accessibility of their audio-visual heritage. M3P Foundation will collaborate in this programme. Through this agreement, these public entities agreed also to plan how Malta’s cultural and creative legacy can be preserved into the future and save important collections from being lost.
The Louis Curmi Collection Louis Curmi (1932 – 2016) was born in Senglea. Shortly following the outbreak of World War 2 in Malta his family moved to the relative safety of Siġġiewi, where he lived until his death. In 1947 he joined HM Dockyard as an apprentice and worked as an electrical fitter until 1968 when he
joined the Paola Technical Institute; eventually he became the institute’s assistant Head. Mr Curmi was an avid collector of old photos, particularly photos related to public transport. His large collection was donated by his family to the National Archives of Malta in October 2017.
The Anthony Mamo Collection
On October 24, 2017 the family of Sir Anthony Mamo (1909 – 2008) donated an extensive collection of records pertaining to this personality to the National Archives of Malta. Sir Anthony Mamo was the first President of Malta. Born in Birkirkara, Mamo was educated at the Seminary and the University of Malta where he earned a bachelor’s degree in 1931 and his law degree in 1934. He was in private practice for a year before joining the civil service serving as Crown Counsel from 1942 and later on he became attorney general. He was appointed as Chief Justice of Malta in 1957 where he served until 1971 when he was appointed as the first Maltese Governor-General. This 6-metre collection includes letters, notes, photos, footage and articles and sheds a unique light on Malta’s political, legal and social history during the second half of the 20th century. It spans between January 1924, Sir Anthony’s examination result as Class III student at the Archbishop’s Seminary, and May 2008, a collection of condolence books from various Maltese embassies following his death. This collection testifies to Sir Anthony’s personality, his legal scholarship, his warm ties to his hometown Birkirkara as well as his statesmanship. Together with the records, the Mamo family donated to the National Archives Sir Anthony’s official gown as Chief Justice, his iconic hat as well as a hand bag that Italian President Giovanni Leone had donated to Lady Mamo.