Information
Dordrecht Regional Archives Dordrecht (RAD) is the repository of the archives of Dordrecht and eight other municipalities in the region. Besides archives, the oldest of which date from the thirteenth century, the RAD manages an extensive archive library (containing over 50,000 titles) and an image collection (with over 200,000 prints, drawings, maps, photographs and (glass) negatives) dating from the sixteenth to the twenty-first century. The RAD also has an audio and film collection (over 8,000 items) from 1900 to the present day.
One of the highlights of the collection is a signed copy of the collected works of the famous literary figure Jacob Cats, Alle de Wercken. In addition to drawings and prints by Dordrecht artists such as Aelbert Cuyp, Samuel van Hoogstraten, Pieter van der Hult, Godefridus Schalcken, Maria Schalcken and Margaretha van Godewijck, there are also seventeenth-century drawings depicting scenes of Dordrecht by artists including Gillis Neyts, Wouter Knijff, Josua de Grave, Jan Peeters I, and Anthonie van Borssom, as well as portraits of men and women from the city and historical events by Johan Faber I, and Romeyn de Hooghe, among others. The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries are particularly well represented with numerous drawings by Dordrecht artists including Aert Schouman, Ary van Wanum, Abraham and Jacob van Strij, Martinus Schouman, Pieter Fontijn, Johannes van Lexmond, J.C. Schotel, and Johannes Rutten.
Another highlight is the Municipal Print Collection, to which the topographical works on paper from the Van Gijn Atlas (Dordracum Illustratum) have been added. The collection contains a great many prints and maps by artists including Blaue, Braun, and Hoogenberg.
The archives are a rich source for art-historical research on probate inventories from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Thanks to the research conducted by John Loughman, many of its items can be consulted using the Getty Provenance Index.
Teun de Bruijn, Municipal Archivist of Dordrecht (March 2023)