Cent ans dans l'histoire des archives de la colonisation

Abstract

Marie-Antoinette Menier, A hundred years in the history of the archives of French colonisation. On the occasion of the transfer of the former «Section Outre-Mer» of the Archives nationales (hitherto located at Paris, 27 rue Oudinot) to the Centre des Archives d'Outre-Mer at Aix-en-Provence, which happened in 1986, the author, former Head of the «Section Outre-Mer», relates the work accomplished in the management of these archives since their séparation, in 1882, from the Archives of Marine. The colonial administration had an individual existence, within the Ministry of Marine, ever since 1680, until at last it became a separate Ministry in 1894, with a complete organisation of its own in 1920, only to disappear forty years later as a resuit of décolonisation. The archives were first located at Paris, then at Versailles under Louis XV, then in the Ministry of Marine at Paris, then in the Louvre, and finally in the newly created Ministry of Colonies rue Oudinot, where they remained until 1986. Their arrangement scheme, adopted in 1911, was quite ignorant of the principie of provenance and had to be abandonned in 1916. The author stresses the importance of these archives, which include several fonds of private papers, the Dépôt des cartes et fortifications des colonies, a library with its annexes, and a collection of maps and photographs. Finally she recalls the memory of two great archivists, her predecessors at the head of the Colonial Archives, Paul Roussier and Carlo Laroche, and praises the work accomplished by the personnel of the former «Section Outre-Mer».