English Summary of Archipel Article
Greetings from Batavia: Postcards from the Dutch East Indies
Archipel is a journal of interdisciplinary studies on Insulindia (Indonesia, Malaysia, The Philippines, Singapore, Brunei Darussalam, East Timor), established in 1971, with particular attention given to humanities. Co-authors of Bons Baisers de Batavia (pp 53–85) in Archipel no. 47 journal in 1994 were Marcell Bonneff and Stephen Grant. Bonneff was director of research at the French CNRS (National Center for Scientific Research) and a specialist in Javanese literature and civilization. Stephen Grant was Director of the Office of Education and Training at USAID (U. S. Agency for International Development) in Jakarta, Indonesia, and a fervent deltiologist, a person who collects and analyses picture postcards. Together, Bonneff and Grant studied 1,000 picture postcards of the Dutch East Indies between 1899 and 1940 that Grant had acquired in the U.S., France, and Indonesia. They examined the postcard producers. While most were in the Dutch East Indies, others represented Holland, Germany, Belgium, Canada, France, and Japan. As for geographical distribution of the cards, 659 were of Java, 239 of Sumatra, 100 of other islands. In Java, 147 were from Batavia (the name later changed to Jakarta), 82 from Surabaya, 52 from Bandung, 37 from Bogor, 21 from Semarang, down to 9 from Solo. As for the subjects represented in the cards, 469 reflected the colonial world, 264 indigenous society, 151 local culture, and 113 nature. Messages handwritten on the postcards in addition to the subjects of cards themselves say a lot. Correspondents emphasize the long distance from the metropolis. They are proud to point out colonial accomplishments such as agricultural production, a well-run society, or evangelization. The article ends with images of 24 black-and-white postcards, each bearing information concerning serial number, title, producer, size, date, message, and principal characteristics.
