Anne Hallema

Number of the description of the archive:

UBGcb061

Description of the archive made by:

Frida van Til, 2022

Description of the collection

Brief overview

Name of the archive: Archive of Anne Hallema

Provenance: Donation by S. Mijjer-Hallema

Dated: ca. 1928-1968

Size: 5 archive boxes and a small green box with cards

Language of the materials: Dutch, Frisian

Summary:

Archive of Anne Hallema (1893-1973), historical publisher, containing historical documents and   (unpublished) articles.

Archive number: UBG061

Institute: University of Groningen

Retainer: University Library Groningen

Provenance and acquisition

Biography

Anne Hallema was the son of Jan (Ruurds) Hallema and Aafke van Dijk. On 15 May 1915, Hallema married Aukje Miedema. The couple would have two daughters together.

After finishing school, Hallema trained as a teacher. However, he only spent a couple years in front of a classroom. WW1 broke out, which took him away from his position at a school in Franeker, where he had worked since 1912. From 1918 until 1920, Hallema attempted to start a career in the tea and tobacco commerce, but this never quite worked out for him. In 1920 he started working at reform schools in Leeuwarden, Alkmaar and Harderwijk. From 1922 onwards he was a teacher at an all boys’ reform school in Ginneken.

Hallema was not very involved with politics. During the 1930s he was a member of the ‘Liberale Staatspartij’ (liberal party) and after WW2 he was briefly a member of the ‘Partij van de Arbeid’ (Labour party). He was elected a member of the interim municipal council of Breda (October 1945 until August 1946). Hallema wasn’t a prominent member of society, nor did he want to be. His work has been influential in the study of the history of Breda, particularly the founding of ‘De Oranjeboom’ in 1948. This club was dedicated to the study of the history of Breda and its surrounding areas. For many years, he was an editor of the club’s yearbook.

Hallema was very passionate about historiography, which preoccupied most of his time. Though he had no formal training, his work was well respected. The amount of work he did was astoundingly prolific. After 1917 he produced nearly 40 books and brochures, many hundreds of articles that were published in both scholarly and popular periodicals, and thousands of newspaper articles. There were a few recurring themes in Hallema’s work: the child, criminal law and the prison system, the House of Orange (the Dutch royal family), as well as craft and industry. He wrote books on historical children’s games, orphanages and beer brewery’s; biographies about famous Dutch historical figures such as Amalia van    Solms, Princess of Orange (1940), King William the second (1949), Dutch admiral Maarten Tromp (1941), and Dutch humanist Hugo Grotius (1942). But he also wrote a biography about the salesman   J.P. van Rossum (1947), and studied local history such as the police force and the prisons, schools, and churches.

Hallema was one of the first to write about the history of criminal law, correctional facilities, workhouses, and the police force. Only nearer the end of Hallema’s working life did other historians start looking at these topics seriously. Hallema’s most famous discovery might have been made in 1925, when he discovered a manuscript of the first edition of Dirck Volckertszoon Coornherts’ Boeventucht (criminal punishment). He also found and published many documents to do with the opening of many local correctional facilities and workhouses in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Among these were Jan van Houts’ recommendations regarding the correctional facility in Amsterdam.

 Appreciation for his work came in the form of a membership of the ‘Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde te Leiden’ (Dutch society for the study of arts) (1934), as well as royal honours (1964).

Acquisition

The archive was donated to the University Library by Ms. S. Mijjer-Hallema, widow of H.J. Mijjer. Anne      Hallema was her father. Her husband, the late H.J. Mijjer, studied at the University of Groningen and     was a teacher in the city.

Future additions

No future additions are expected.

Contents and collation

The archive contains many articles, some of them unpublished and/or in manuscript form. Furthermore,    the archive contains research materials and research notes, and propaganda posters. There is correspondence with penitentiary institutions, halfway houses, the ministry of Justice, and other (local) governmental institutions from several cities. Hallema requested for them to send information about their founding, as well as any archive materials they may have. There are also documents pertaining to research of the colonial Dutch Swellengrebel family, with some 18^th century primary source material.

 Instructions for users of the archive

Accessibility

The archive is accessible for research purposes. To look at the archive, a University Library Access Pass is required.

 Limitations to use

The materials in this archive are available for viewing only. They cannot be borrowed. When consulting these materials, the rules set out in the Reglement voor de gebruikers van de Bibliotheek der Rijksuniversiteit Groningen apply. Reproductions, insofar as they are allowed, are to be made in line with the rules set out in the Tarieven en diensten Bibliotheek der Rijksuniversiteit Groningen.

Accessing the archive

 An inventory of the archive is available.

 Citations

When referencing (materials from) this archive, the following information must be provided in full at least once. After this, an abbreviated citation suffices.

-       Archive: University Library Groningen, archive Hallema

-       Individual items: Groningen, University Library, Hallema [number]

Requests

The materials in this archive can be requested via SmartCat or by sending an email to the Special Collections department.