UNESCO UNESCO - Memory of the World - The treasures that record our history from 1700 BC to the present day

This book reveals this heritage in all of its diversity. For twenty years, the Memory of the World programme has gone from strength to strength. We must now take it ever further – by increasing nominations from all countries and by raising the visibility of preserving sources of knowledge of outstanding significance. Memory of the World is coming of age at a time when preserving our documentary heritage is more important than ever.

The emotional power of documents

Roslyn Russell PhD

Chair, International Advisory Committee

UNESCO Memory of the World Programme

Among the 245 inscriptions on the UNESCO Memory of the World Register is the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum archives from Cambodia. One photograph in the archives shows a young mother cradling a baby. It is an image that brings to mind countless others of the same subject – a mother and child – especially images of the Madonna and the Christ Child, the essence of serenity and spiritual grace.

But learning of the fate that met this particular mother and child can evoke an almost unbearable pain in the viewer – for these two individuals, after having been meticulously documented in this photograph, were taken out and killed, as were the other subjects of the photographs in the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum archives. These documents form a historical record, to be sure, but they also deliver a powerful emotional charge – and remind us of things that never should be forgotten, or repeated.

World significance, provenance and authenticity, and rarity and uniqueness are key values when assessing the suitability of a nomination of documentary heritage for inscription on the UNESCO Memory of the World Register. However, we must never forget the reasons why documents are so important to us, and why we believe so passionately in their preservation.

The historical evidence that documents convey is one reason; others are the beauty and craftsmanship, or the technical innovations some documents display. The capacity of documents to engage our emotions and connect us to people and events in the past is another.

Archivists, librarians and museum curators who work with collections relating to Indigenous people can testify to the powerful emotions that flow when these people find their families mentioned in documents, or see photographs or film footage of their ancestors, or hear recordings of voices speaking their language.

Holy books and writings can also evoke strong emotional responses in members of particular faith systems. For a believer, a document associated with a saint or a prophet is not just a physical object; it possesses a spiritual power over and above its historical significance, or its value as an original, rare or unique item.

The popularity of exhibitions of documents indicates how compelling these can be in connecting people with the past. An exhibition curator explains why visitors flock to see displays of letters by writers, artists, scientists, philosophers, inventors, and political figures: ‘We see the writers’ words directly, unfiltered. The manuscripts give a sense of the authors’ daily lives, friendships, concerns and ambitions, their work and their leisure.’ Original music manuscripts can have the same emotional power, as the viewer sees the erasures, the corrections and the resolutions that lie behind a finished score. Even the pen strokes can convey the passion and intensity of composition. There are few objects of material culture that are more imbued with the personality of their originators than documents such as these.

It is the task of the UNESCO Memory of the World Programme to ensure that future generations will be able to access these documents and experience their emotional power, as well as to learn about the historical memories that they convey, or appreciate their beauty and craftsmanship.

Memory of World Register

Albania

Codex Purpureus Beratinus

Angola

Arquivos dos Dembos / Ndembu archives *

Argentina

Documentary heritage of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata

Human rights documentary heritage, 1976–1983

Armenia

Mashtots Matenadaran ancient manuscripts collection

First Byurakan Survey (FBS or Markarian survey)

Australia

The Endeavour journal of James Cook

The Convict Records of Australia

Manifesto of the Queensland Labour Party to the people of Queensland

The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906)

The Mabo case manuscripts

Austria

Papyrus Erzherzog Rainer

Tabula Peutingeriana

Vienna Dioscurides

Collection of Gothic architectural drawings

Bibliotheca Corviniana *

Mainz Psalter at the Austrian National Library

Tabula Hungariae *

The Atlas Blaeu–Van der Hem

The Vienna City Library Schubert collection

Final document of the Congress of Vienna

Brahms collection

Arnold Schönberg estate

The historical collections (1899–1950) of the Vienna Phonogrammarchiv

Azerbaijan

Medieval manuscripts on medicine and pharmacy

Bahamas

Registry of Slaves of the British Caribbean 1817–1834 *

Farquharson’s Journal

Barbados

Documentary heritage of enslaved peoples of the Caribbean

Silver men: West Indian labourers at the Panama Canal *

Federal Archives fonds

Nita Barrow collection

Belarus

Radziwills’ Archives and Niasvizh (Nieśwież) Library collection *

Belgium

Bibliotheca Corviniana *

Archives Insolvente Boedelskamer Antwerpen

Business archives of the Officina Plantiniana

Belize

Registry of Slaves of the British Caribbean 1817–1834 *

Benin

Colonial archives, Benin

Bermuda

Registry of Slaves of the British Caribbean 1817–1834 *

Bolivia

American colonial music: a sample of its documentary richness *

Documentary fonds of Royal Audiencia Court of La Plata (RALP)

Brazil

Dutch West India Company (Westindische Compagnie) archives *

The Emperor’s collection

Network of information and counter information on the military regime in Brazil (1964–1985)

Bulgaria

Enina Apostolos, Old Bulgarian Cyrillic manuscript (fragment) of the 11th century

Cambodia

Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum archives

Canada

Quebec Seminary collection, 1623–1800 (17th–19th centuries)

Hudson’s Bay Company archival records

Neighbours, animated, directed and produced by Norman McLaren in 1952

Chile

Jesuits of America

Human Rights Archive of Chile

China

Huang Di Nei Jing (Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon)

Ancient Naxi Dongba literature manuscripts

Ben Cao Gang Mu (Compendium of Materia Medica)

Records of the Qing’s Grand Secretariat

Golden Lists of the Qing dynasty imperial examination

Qing dynasty Yangshi Lei archives

Traditional music sound archives

Colombia

Negros y Esclavos archives