Archives IV in Đà Lạt

From: Pamela McElwee <pdmcelwee@gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, July 31, 2023 4:48 AM
To: vsg@u.washington.edu
Subject: Re: [Vsg] Archives IV in Đà Lạt

Not to pile on, but people other than historians have also accessed NAV4 in Dalat and published based on these materials. I visited in 2009 and collected materials used in my 2016 book Forests are Gold, which focuses on the former Annam in the first chapter on French colonial forest management. I visited again in 2016 for my current book and I am sure there are plenty of others who have used NAV4. The archivists are very kind, following up with me in emails after I left, and the setting is lovely, which is more than one can say for some other archives that shall remain nameless.

Pam McElwee, Rutgers

From: Hoang Vu <hmv23@cornell.edu>
Sent: Friday, July 28, 2023 12:46 PM
To: Tuan Hoang <tuannyriver@gmail.com>
Cc: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: [Vsg] Archives IV in Đà Lạt

Hi all,

Archives IV is based in Tran Le Xuan (Madame Nhu)’s former villa, which has undergone extensive renovations over the past few years. While the State Archives made a special effort to keep the reading room open, it would perhaps be a more inviting place to work once these renovations are complete later this year (if you don’t mind the tourists, that is.)

Like Bradley said, there are Vietnamese researchers who have been making use of Archives IV, and I have suggested several of my own students to make use of it for their projects. Like a Tuan mentioned, Archives IV was split from Archives II and so, like Archives II, IV has traditionally been more welcoming and open to foreign researchers than I and III. I would be interested to see if any of that has changed following the incident in Dak Lak. So far, I have seen media restrictions but not so much research restrictions. I was still recently able to obtain on the open market a very good book edited by Dương Thị Ngọc Bích, Livelihood of Ethnic Minorities in Daklak’s Border Areas (NXB Khoa hoc Xa hoi, 2022) which highlighted all the red flags of ethnic minority social discontent.

One very valuable collection in Archives IV that wasn’t mentioned above is the Nguyen Dynasty mộc bản, original wooden prints that were made to create the châu bản official dynastic rolls stored in Archives I. They were left rotting in Hue’s dour climate for many years before being transported to Da Lat for better storage facilities, but I heard from EFEO colleagues that some of the mộc bản were lost along the way due to a mishap with a track in the mud.

Vu Minh Hoang

Fulbright University Vietnam

From: Tuan Hoang <tuannyriver@gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, July 28, 2023 12:15 PM
To: Davis,Bradley C.(History) <davisbrad@easternct.edu>
Cc: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: [Vsg] Archives IV in Đà Lạt

To add, Eric Jennings' book on colonial Đà Lạt made use of the Résidence supériure d'Annam files, which were held at Archives II at the time but were later moved to Archives IV. The notes acknowledge Hazel Hahn, who wrote the post in Bradley's message, for her assistance regarding IV. 

Tuan Hoang

Pepperdine University
www.tuannyriver.com/about

From: Davis,Bradley C.(History) <davisbrad@easternct.edu>
Sent: Friday, July 28, 2023 11:21 AM
To: Tuan Hoang <tuannyriver@gmail.com>; Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: [Vsg] Archives IV in Đà Lạt

List,

 The digital place formerly known as “Twitter” may or may not allow attachments, but anyone working on Nguyễn period sources housed in Đà Lạt would benefit from revisting an article by R.B. Smith, one written with the assistance of John Whitmore in the 1960s. It seems the call to do better has a long history of its own.

R. B. Smith, “ Sino-Vietnamese Sources for the Nguyễn Period: An Introduction,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. 30, No. 3, Fiftieth Anniversary Volume (1967), 600-621.

Also, several other scholars on and off VSG have worked in these materials, not to mention scholars who do not publish in English. A thread from 2008:

https://sites.google.com/uw.edu/vietnamstudiesgroup/other-library-and-archival-resources/guides-to-archives-and-collections/notes-on-archives-center-no-4

I second the call for more work in TTLT4, but also hope we can remain mindful that the great work to come builds on the great work that has been done.

Brad

Bradley Camp Davis (he/him)

Associate Professor                                        

Department of History

Webb Hall 333

Eastern Connecticut State University 

83 Windham Street

Willimantic, CT 06226

US

From: Tuan Hoang <tuannyriver@gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, July 28, 2023 8:24 AM
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Subject: [Vsg] Archives IV in Đà Lạt

List-

Cody Billock (Ohio University) gave me permission to share his Twitter thread, slightly edited below, about his recent experience plus a call for more research at Archives IV, which has long been overshadowed by I, II, and III. 

I spent the last three weeks researching at National Archives IV in Đà Lạt, the primary depository for materials on Central Vietnam. The archivists here are really nice and welcoming to foreign researchers. Here is a thread about Archive IV. The archive is an old colonial era villa that has a unique history of its own. During the Republic of Vietnam (RVN), it was owned by [an advisor to] Ngô Đình Nhu, who was arguably the most powerful man in South Vietnam.

As the archive for Central Vietnam, Archives IV holds the majority of woodblocks from the Nguyễn Dynasty and the imperial court in Huế. These woodblocks, written in Chinese characters, are a vastly underutilized source for the history of precolonial Vietnam. The archive also has a lot of materials in French detailing the administrative activities of colonial authorities in Central Vietnam. These materials are a great source for those studying about French colonialism.

The archive also has several file groups relating to Central Vietnam during the RVN period. To my knowledge, David Biggs’ environmental history, Footprints of War, is the only western book to cite Archives IV documentation. No other historian of the RVN or State of Vietnam (SVN) has employed these materials. All the holdings relating to society, the military, politics, the economy, governmental administrators, etc, have not been integrated into our historical understanding of modern Vietnam.

Surprisingly, there have only been three other researchers from the US & France that have visited the archive this year. When I was there, I only saw a few Vietnamese researchers. It’s criminally underused. The vast majority of days, I was by myself... Frankly, the fact that this National Archive is so underutilized is a stain on academia and the historical profession. We can, and should, do better. There is so much work to be done here. Hopefully, my generation of scholars can move the ball forward and really put in some work in these archives.

Tuan Hoang

Pepperdine University
www.tuannyriver.com/about