The Vliegende Bladen of the Boekentoren

The Vliegende Bladen is one of the top collections of Ghent University Library. It is a unique collection of ephemeral documents that are highly diverse in both content and form, and of inestimable value for understanding the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

How it began

It all began with the collecting fervour of one man, Ferdinand vander Haeghen. He was head librarian from 1868 to 1911 and had already started collecting les pièces volantes in 1859. Originally intended as background information for the pieces he described in his Bibliografie Gantoise. He instructed several booksellers to buy up lots of documents that were considered insignificant but were of interest for his research. After a few years he realised that quite a few had become rare, and he recognised the importance of preserving them.

At the end of the nineteenth century, he issued a call in magazines and newspapers not to throw away any written, printed or drawn document, even if it seemed insignificant. He also asked friends and acquaintances, many of whom belonged to the nobility and artistic circles, to clear out their attics and bring him anything that seemed interesting. What followed was the start of a collection that now comprises more than one million items.

Many of the documents had little historical value at the time of publication and were not intended to be kept. That is precisely what makes them unique now. Taken as a whole, the collection offers a fairly complete picture of the life, customs and habits down to the smallest detail of the nineteenth-century Ghent resident in particular.

Thanks to Vander Haeghen's extensive network in cultural and socio-economic life, the collection includes both everyday and often valuable items. It largely consists of near-complete archives of associations, which are a fantastic source for researchers. Academics, (local) historians, heritage professionals, students and members of the public looking for information about a particular building, person or company, but also professions, appliances, products, streets, neighbourhoods and so on, find information here that is preserved nowhere else.

What exactly is kept here?

Vander Haeghen interpreted the term ephemera broadly, meaning that alongside occasional printed matter, many other kinds of items were included. The collection largely grew through donations, and by the time he left the library it is thought to have already comprised 740,000 items. It now numbers more than one million items and runs to roughly 500 linear metres. Ghent is usually, though not always, the focus, but items relating to most Flemish towns and municipalities (and occasionally even places beyond the country's borders) can also be found.

Documents from before the mid-nineteenth century mostly come from wealthy families, whose archives sometimes date back to the late Middle Ages. They include accounts, wills with inventories of household goods, family trees, contracts, proclamations, and so on, but also personal letters and documents that shed light on everyday life. In addition, there are numerous archival items from guilds, associations and exhibitions, including budgets, minutes, banquet menus, letters, registrations, receipts and invitations such as the inventory of animals at what was then Ghent Zoo. The original plans and designs by city architects Louis Roelandt and Louis Minard are also included.

Biographical material such as newspaper clippings, marriage announcements, death notices and numerous notes, many compiled by Prosper Claeys. As the son of a publisher, he had an eye for bibliographic material, including printer's proofs, publishers' prospectuses, newspapers and old prints. His father's printing house and publishing business were, of course, also an important source. As a result, numerous advertising leaflets, flyers, packaging, business cards, promotional booklets, invoices, announcements and catalogues for clothing, cars and furniture were added to the collection. But also everyday documents such as a tram ticket, a train timetable, a cinema ticket and a theatre programme. A great deal of political and religious printed matter also found its way to the library, along with the occasional curiosity such as wallpaper, badges, matchboxes, assignats and, most famously, a parrot's wing sent by a nineteenth-century explorer to prove there was life on the island he was exploring. In terms of material types, the collection mainly consists of printed matter, photographs, picture postcards, watercolours, prints, posters, chromolithographs, bookplates, almanacs, manuscripts, and more.

The oldest known document to date is a piece from 1313, part of a small archive belonging to a medieval hospital in Diest.

The collection really does cover everything. Only the John Johnson Collection, held at the Bodleian Library in Oxford and assembled between 1923 and 1956, can be compared to it. Johnson, like Vander Haeghen, was the son of a printer/publisher. He worked retroactively, with Great Britain as his focus. Vander Haeghen collected both retroactively and contemporaneously, thereby preserving a magnificent picture of the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. At the time, people believed in the total knowability of things, partly through preserving and ordering them. It is fascinating to see how this played out in the Ghent collection.

Who can consult it?

The Vliegende Bladen is unique in terms of its content, scope and accessibility. Although the latter might seem an impossible task, Vander Haeghen found a way to make the collection searchable. Everything is organised according to a fairly strict thesaurus of French keywords that he compiled himself, a simple and workable form of metadata. This keyword system has a strong geographical structure centred on Ghent. The rule is that documents from Ghent can be found under subject keywords, while those from other towns and municipalities are filed under their location. For example, an advertisement for a clothing shop in Aalst can be found under Alost, Vêtements, while one for a clothing shop in Ghent is filed under Vêtements. As the story goes, Vander Haeghen wore a coat with as many pockets as there are letters in the alphabet, and when he catalogued an item relating to, say, a baker, he would put it in the pocket marked 'B' for Boulanger.

In the 1980s, a catalogue was compiled for each fonds, arranged alphabetically by keyword. Following renovations to the Boekentoren and the associated move of the collection to the underground depot, the entire collection has since been packaged in acid-free folders down to folder level and catalogued in the online catalogue. In this way, the collection is accessible to everyone. Before starting your own research, it is advisable to think of various keywords related to your topic, translate them into French, and then enter them into our online catalogue by typing the keyword and selecting the 'ephemera' filter. This makes it easy to find the relevant folders and request them yourself from home for consultation in the reading room.