ARCHIVES TASK FORCE’S REPORT
by Dr. Catherine Bosshart, VP UN of BPW International
The archives of BPW International until 2008 have been deposited in Atria, the Institute on Gender Equality and Women’s History in Amsterdam. They were completed with documents and photographs from the former International Finance Officer, Willy van Irsel, and some documents from the first BPW Club in Hong Kong when it still was under British rule which my son fetched from Hong Kong, brought them to Switzerland and a member of the task force took them to Amsterdam in 2019.
As mentioned in my report for Cairo Congress 2017, I have about a quarter of the archives sorted out and registered. All the records of radio broadcasts of Lena Madesin Phillips on occasion of International Women’s Day were digitized as well as original photographs that were in danger of perishing. During 2019 and 2020, Atria saw many changes, the director left as well as the archivist Annette Mevis with whom I had worked closely. Therefore, I was not informed how far the digitization had proceeded. Only a few weeks ago, the new person responsible for the archives, sent me a message and announced that an intern will be able to continue during Spring 2021 to go through the documents which I had not yet dealt with. It is still a work in progress and COVID-19 did not help as nobody could travel.
The members of the task force are still Antje Wiersma, Amsterdam and Andrea Völlmin, Aarau, Switzerland.
Workbook 2021 - p. 50
