The
Archives
Since its establishment as a Preparatory Office in 1955, the Institute has been collecting all manner of government archival materials, including archives from the late Qing period transferred to the Institute from the Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Economic Affairs. In order to preserve these sources, an Archives Room was founded in December 1958. Three decades later, the Archives Building was completed in February 1988. The stacks and storage rooms occupy the 2nd through 4th floors, and are equipped with state of the art climate control and fire prevention systems. The 3rd floor contains the Reading Room, Display Room, and Directorˇs Office while the 4th floor has rooms for the staff to process archival materials.
The Instituteˇs collection of archival materials centers on the Economic Archives and the Diplomatic Archives, as well as personal papers donated by famous individuals or their families and photocopies of some of the archives related to the February 28th Incident of 1947. The largest single set of archival materials is the Economic Archives from Postwar Taiwan, which consists of approximately 50,000 boxes or han (one han = 35 x 24 x 11 centimeters) totaling over 30 million pages. These materials, combined with data in the K.T. Li Papers (totaling more than 600 thousand pages), comprise the most complete collection of primary source material on Taiwanˇs economic development and ¨Economic Miracle〃.
The table below contains data on the Archivesˇ collection as of June 2002:
|
Category |
Time
Period
|
Contents
|
Size
|
Availability
|
Digitalization |
|
Diplomatic Archives |
1860~1926 |
46 series,
including commercial affairs and incidents related to missionaries, etc. |
3,911 boxes |
Open to the public |
Records from 1912
onward are currently being digitalized |
|
Economic Archives from Mainland China |
1903~1949 |
Mining,
irrigation, commerce, etc. |
Approximately 20,000 boxes |
Open to the public |
Commercial archives from 1926-1949
have already been digitalized |
|
Economic Archives from Postwar Taiwan |
1946~1980 |
Council on U.S.
Aid, state-owned enterprises, economic policy, etc. |
Approximately 50,000 boxes |
Partially open to the public |
Records of the
Economic Stabilization Board and the Council for U.S. Aid have been
digitalized |
|
Chinese and Foreign Maps |
1900s~1940s |
Topographic maps, maps of waterways |
15,000 boxes |
Open for microfilm viewing |
Digitalization
in progress |
|
Individual Papers |
1900s~2002 |
More than 40
collections, including the K. T. Li Papers |
Approximately 2000 boxes |
Partially open to the public |
The K.T. Li papers
is being digitalized |
|
Academia Sinica materials |
1925-1992 |
7 collections,
including the Zhu Jiahua Papers |
1,200 boxes |
Zhu Jiahua and
Wang Shijie Papers open to the public |
In planning
stages |
|
February 28th Incident materials |
1929-1989 |
Xeroxed
materials from 13 government agencies and the press |
50 boxes |
Open to the public |
Will not be
digitalized |
The Archivesˇ publications include the Collection of the Catalogues for Documents on Modern China's Foreign Affairs, Collection of the Catalogues for Documents on Modern China's Economic Affairs, Catalogue for the Map Collection in the Institute of Modern History, The 228 Incident: A Documentary Collection; and Collection of Historical Materials (20 collections).
The Archivesˇ staff has also been busy
digitalizing the collection, in order to preserve a back-up copy of archival
materials and make them available for researchers to use at their convenience
via the Internet. As of June 2002, the digitalization process has progressed as
follows:
Collections |
Pages |
Availability |
Notes |
|
Economic Stabilization Board, Executive Yuan (1953~1958) |
103,280 |
Open to the public |
Completed |
|
Council for United States Aid, Executive Yuan (1948~1963) |
33,540 |
Open to the public |
Completed |
|
Provincial
Production Board (1949~1953) |
221,853 |
Open to the public |
Completed; archives stored at the Historical Research Commission of Taiwan Province, Academia Historica |
|
The Foreign Exchange and Trade Commission (1954~1968) |
94,052 |
Open to the public |
Completed; archives stored at the Taiwan Provincial Assembly Library |
|
Records of registration for commercial companies, accountants, and people going abroad |
961,696 |
Will be available in August 2002 |
Completed |
|
K. T. Liˇs personal effects and photographs |
264,221 |
Open to the public |
In progress |
|
Memos and documents from the Taiwan Governor-Generalˇs Office, Monopoly Bureau, and other related organizations |
5,400,000 |
Table of contents can be searched |
In progress; archives stored at the the Historical Research Commission of Taiwan, Academia Historica |
|
Diplomatic archives, archives of the Council for International Economic Cooperation and Development, Executive Yuan |
290,000 |
Open to the public |
In progress; is part of the National Digital Archives Program |
To visit the Archive's Chinese website, click here