Sharing common experiences and problems in the field of Military Archives
On Thursday 3 September 2024, the Committee of Military Archives had the privilege to visit the Portuguese Army Military Archives in Lisbon.
The Portuguese Army Historical Archives secondary entrance in campo de Santa Clara
The archives are located in the centre of the city, in a building previously dedicated to the equipment production and then re-used as the siege of the Army Historical Archives with the storage facilities organised to keep 15 km of documents.
The entrance of the Army Military Archives
Colonel Carlos Faria welcomed in the Reading room the members of the CAM who joined the archives for the visit.
On the left, the logo of the Arquivo Histórico Militar
Some of the documents prepared for the CAM visit to the Portuguese Army Military Archives
After the welcome speech, Lieutenant Colonel Cunhia Roberto presented the Army Military Archives organisation and functions.
Lt. Col. Cunhia Roberto and our colleagues of the CAM during the presentation
The second presentation was held by Dr. Isabel Beato, an archivist on duty to the Portuguese Naval Archives. She presented, among other topics, the digitalisation projects and some future initiative.
The presentation of the Portuguese Navy Archives
The third and last presentation was held by Colonel Antonio Caixeiro chief of the Air Force Military Archives who underlined the last changes occurred and the challenges the Archives face in the last period of activity.
Colonel Antonio Caixeiro during the presentation
After each presentation there was a Q&A moment in order to exchange different experiences and points of view.
Few moments of the visit to the storage area of the historical archies
The visit ended with a short tour to the storage facilities, the exposition prepared for the 50th anniversary of the Carnation revolution and a coffee concluded the very important experience held in the Portuguese military archives.
The exhibition for the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Carnation revolution
We thanks a lot all three military archives, their chiefs and all the personnel for the very interesting presentations.
We look forward to receive a short post related to the presentation for each archive.
According to the agenda of the Committee of Military Archives meeting in Istanbul one of the topic was CAM activities and specifically the blog results.
We presented the results of the working year 2022/2023 and our considerations in front of all the National Commissions during the General Assembly of the International Commission of Military History on 8th September according to the general program.
Now, we are happy to share more information on the CAM topics touched during our presentation.
The first slide of our presentation in front of the General Assembly
With the agenda the CAM presented:
the results of the Committee meeting;
the visit to the Istanbul national archives;
some updates on our committee;
the CAM blog and future activities;
the military archives online guide;
the CAM on X.
Regarding the meeting information, please see the dedicated post. Moving to the surprise we received at the end of the Congress, we were very happy to be invited for a visit to the Istanbul National Archives (we will dedicate a specific post on it).
Regarding the CAM blog, the steering committee decided to offer an overview of the facts and figures on the working year 2022-2023. On this point, we presented some suggestions to include more contributors.
Giving an overview of the results of the Military Archives Online Guide we can affirm that they are not so enthusiastic but we are still committed to continue our effort in this project.
The conclusions presented by the CAM to the General Assembly
At the end, the CAM steering committee stated the conclusions as follows.
We will:
continue to promote our projects;
enlarge our actions to the National Commissions within the ICMH;
publish other posts on the blog;
engage more directly the Military National Archives.
To conclude, the Committee of Military Archives invites all the members of the National Commissions, all the delegates and attendees of the CAM meetings and all the volunteers to engage directly in this blog proposing themes and topics.
We will be more than happy to enjoy together.
8th September 2023, the visit to the National Archives in Istanbul. the CAM representative during the meeting with the Deputy Director, Dr. Sebahattin BAYRAM.
My experiences as a student in the Italian Carabinieri Historical Archive reading room.
by Maria Letizia Annaloro, Master’s Degree in Archival and Library Science
The Committee of Military Archives thanks Maria Letizia Annaloro, Master’s Degree in Archival and Library Science, for her committment and her participation to describe her experience during the preparation of the thesis based on an archival inventory of a Carabinieri historical archive fund.
For the writing of my master degree I asked the Historical Office of the Carabinieri General whether they wanted to help me with a project to make an inventory of a part of their archives. When I rethink my experience I can only describe it as quite special.
I had to create an inventory from the beginning, a very important task, since an inventory can be considered as the most important tool to access an archive for research. It took a prolonged period of time and a daily presence within the Historical Office to do this work, as opposed to the consultation of information for a simple research.
The front page of the archival inventory of the archival fund of the Carabinieri Company of Modica (Sicily) realised by Maria Letizia Annaloro.
Making an inventory and creating an access to an archives is an archivist’s finest job, so it is not surprising that I initially tended to view this experience as something very personal, rather than something useful for the public. At the time, I was so focused on completing my task, that I forgot why I was doing it and the context in which I was doing my job.
When I entered the archives, I noticed some aspects of the place that cannot be described even by the most accurate encyclopedia: the silence, which can give great satisfaction. I seemed to be alone, but in reality I was not: the religious silence was broken by the sound of pages that were turned, by the footsteps of passers-by.
I even noticed the specks of dust visible in the beams of light coming from the windows. After a moment of strong emotional impact, I moved on to consult the material that had kindly been made available to me. Gathering this information was useful for studying the nature of the papers and the structure of the institution.
From the first moment I definitely felt the differences between a military organization and the the civilian world, to be honest, it was a shock for me, I was even convinced I wouldn’t fit in and I wanted to leave
During my everyday experience in the reading room I understood the organisation needed to manage my request as master candidate. After some days, i saw the effort led by the personnel to support my needs and to help me in my archival inventory. So I changed my perception moving from a professional involvement to a personal one.
From the professional point of view, it has contributed to increase the empowerment and awareness acquired during the university training by adding a series of useful information for the reading of the documentation treated, in which rituals and symbols are integral parts of the context. Of fundamental support for the knowledge of the materials provided was the presence of the Maresciallo Maggiore Marcello Di Fede and the Appuntato Scelto special qualification Davide Fusco, helping me to interpret the papers so that I could complete the drafting of the inventory.
After months of hard work, I drew conclusions, exposed my work, justified my choices not only to others, but especially to myself. My goal was to highlight the uniqueness of this incredible patrimony that tells interconnected stories through documents, showing everyone that the archives is a place of study and research not only for an elite group of university students, researchers and professionals. It is a source of knowledge for everyone, making it possible to discover information about the institution, it’s history and even the culture of the territories in which it operates. It adds important pieces for the reconstruction of a history, not only it’s own but also the national history.
Nowadays, finally I could bring back values other than experience. I know that the archives represent one part of the cultural heritage; the organisation stores them as a facilitator, keeping memoris in its storage repository, but providing the full accessibility to the citiziens.
