Here we aim to briefly explain the history of the digitized archives of SweCarCol, as well as how they are described and organized.
Fonds suédois de Saint Barthélemy (FSB), Archives nationales d’outre-mer, Aix-en-Provence
The largest digitized archive in SweCarCol is the Fonds suédois de Saint Barthélemy (roughly The Swedish S:t Barthélemy collection) which is abbreviated FSB. The archive is kept in Archives nationales d’outre-mer (ANOM) in Aix-en-Provence, southern France. It contains 327 volumes, and when digitized roughly 176 000 images. FSB could be called the Swedish government archive originating from St Barthélemy. The history of the archive contains many stories and anecdotes, and the following description can only sum up its history. Within the literature referred to below, you can find an exhaustive account of the often quite complex turns of its past.
The documentation within FSB was created by the Swedish state on St Barthélemy during the period 1785–1878. The archive contains a few scattered documents from before and after the Swedish dominion, but principally, all holdings of the archive can be dated back to the Swedish administration of the colony. Within the treaty between Sweden and France which regulated the transfer of the colony, it was stipulated that the government archive would be left on the island, for the use of the new governance. The archive was thus kept in the so called Government House in Gustavia. St Barthélemy was under the administration of the larger island Guadeloupe, and in 1930, the Swedish documentation was transferred to the Guadeloupe archives. It is impossible to know to which degree the documents now kept in FSB actually corrrelates to those left on the island during the transfer of rule. One example of this precariousness is that when St Bartelemy's Swedish history started to garner interest from Sweden, during the early 1960's, more archival holdings were discovered in Gustavia (about 75 000 pages).
Some of the archival documents found in Gustavia in 1962. Photograph: Olle Nyman, private collection.
These documents were incorporated into FSB in what at the time was the French departmental archive of Guadeloupe: Archives départementales de la Guadeloupe. During it's time in Guadeloupe, the archive was organized by Swedish amateur historians, under the document series which still apply today. Access to FSB is crucial in order to understand most aspects of the history of the colony. For example, it is only in FSB that we can find information on the living conditions of the black population, in for example the series Court of justice minutes (PJ), Slavery (ES), Censuses (PO) and more.
The archive was organized during the 1960s, in accordance to these cursory series. They were created without larger understanding of the origin of the documents, and there are many thematic and chronological inconsistencies regarding how they were classified.
Some Swedish researchers visited the Guadeloupe archives, and decided to transport FSB to France, where it would be restored and microfilmed. In 1971, the archive arrived in Archives nationales d’outre-mer i Aix-en-Provence. Parts of the archive were microfilmed during the early 1970:s, but no larger efforts were made to conserve or restore the at times very damaged archive. Some Swedish researchers were granted access in the 1980:s, but later the archive was closed from research, due to its bad condition. Increasing interest in Swedish colonial history created a new focus on FSB, and during the early 2010:s, a group from Uppsala University were granted permission to digitize parts of the archive. The project grew and led to the complete digitization of FSB. Research grants were secured in 2018 in order to create the digital SweCarCol archive.
Inventories and literature on the history of FSB
A short description of the contents of every volume of FSB is available in Alvin, here is the main post for FSB. Choose a volume for a description of the contents. For example volume 59, Finance council minutes.
Short overview of FSB from ANOM: Inventoire provisoire.
Inventory of FSB by archivist Björn Lindh (1973) ahead of microfilming: Förteckning FSB.
Journalist Rolf Lamborn wrote about his and his wife Florence Lamborn's work with the archive: “The Archives of Saint Bartholomew Rediscovered”, Swedish Pioneer Historical Society, 1964, full text: https://collections.carli.illinois.edu/digital/collection/npu_sahq/id/3005/rec/1
National archivist Ingvar Andersson on the Swedish archive and its contents: “Arkivalier från S:t Barthélemys svenska tid”, Arkiv, samhälle och forskning, 1965. Full text here.
Archivist Björn Lindh who was responsible for the partial microfilming of FSB during the early 1970:s, summarising the contents of the archive: “Det svenska S:t Barthélemy-arkivet”, Arkiv, samhälle och forskning, 1974. Full text here.
Researcher Jacynthe Lavoie went through FSB as well as other archival material relating to the colony during the 1980:s: Sources concernant l'île Saint-Barthélemy dans les archives de France, 1987.
The director of Archives départementales de la Guadeloupe Anne Lebel goes through the history and contents of FSB: “Saint Barthélemy et ses archives : une connaissance historique éclatée”, Bulletin de la societé d’historie de la Guadeloupe, 2011, full text: https://doi.org/10.7202/1036826ar
Historian Fredrik Thomasson on the history of the archive and the digitalization of FSB: “Den karibiska skorpionen: Om digitaliseringen av det svenska Saint Barthélemy-arkivet i Aix-en-Provence,” Historisk tidskrift, 2018, full text: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-353004; and in an extended version in English: “The Caribbean Scorpion: The Saint Barthélemy Archive and Swedish Colonial Amnesia.” Small Axe, 2020: https://doi.org/10.1215/07990537-8604478
The Swedish St Barthélemy archive was kept in this building in Basse-Terre on Guadeloupe until it was transported to France during the 1970s.
S:t Barthélemysamlingen (SBS), Riksarkivet, Marieberg
S:t Barthélemysamlingen (SBS) of the Swedish National Archives primarily contains documents sent from the colony to the authorities in Stockholm. The archive consists of 75 volumes (with differing forms of enumeration) and ca. 45 000 images in SweCarCol. The archive was ordered and registered by 1893, and a lesser accession added additional documents in 1984 (volume 52). Within the archive are for example the governor's reports, excerpts from court records, financial reports, and more. In consideration of the principle of provenance, FSB and SBS is largely two parts of the same archive, since documents from both archives origined from the Swedish colonial administration. There are additionally concepts for correspondence with the colony, which to a certain degree overlaps with the incoming correspondence in FSB. The Swedish National Archives inventory of SBS. A short description of every archival volume is available in Alvin, here is the main post for SBS, then choose a volume for a description, for example volume 1A in SBS.
Svenska västindiska kompaniet (SVIK), Riksarkivet, Marieberg
Svenska Västindiska Kompaniet (Swedish West Indian Company) was founded in Stockholm 1785 and dissolved in 1805. The Royal Family was the largest of the company's roughly 115 owners. The company activities were closely connected to the governance of the colony, and the company can in many respects be defined as part of the state administration of St Barthélemy. For example, company employees were part of the local council. The company archives contain bookkeeping and financial records, as well as correspondence and reports regarding the history of the colony during the first two decades of the company. The company archive is part of The National Archives larger thematic collection Handel och Sjöfart.
The archive consists of 145 volumes (with differing forms of enumeration), and ca. 28 000 images in SweCarCol. The National Archives inventory of Handel och Sjöfart, SVIK:s archive, is listed on page 8ff. A short description of every archive volume is available in Alvin, here is the main post for SVIK, then choose a volume for a description, for example volume 86 in Handel och Sjöfart, the first volume in the collection containing archival documents regarding SVIK. The most thorough examination of SVIKs activities – although mainly during the first decade of the company – is Ingegerd Hildebrands doctoral thesis: Den svenska kolonin S:t Barthélemy och Västindiska kompaniet fram till 1796 (Lund 1951). In the library catalogue Libris: http://libris.kb.se/bib/8074428. Hildebrand briefly describes the SVIK contents in the Swedish National Archives and other Swedish archival materials and printed works connected to St Barthélemy during the first decades of the colony on pages 325–334.
Kolonialdepartementet, Riksarkivet, Marieberg
Kolonialdepartementet (The Colonial Department) was established during the 1810:s, and after the loss of the Swedish Northern German territories in 1815, it was mainly tasked with the governance of St Barthélemy. The digitized contents consists of 36 volumes (with differing forms of enumeration) and ca. 1 800 images in SweCarCol. A short description of every archive volume is available in Alvin, here is the main post for Kolonialdepartementet. The digitized materials containing minutes regarding the governance of the colony from ca. 1810 to 1844, the year when the administration of the colony was transferred to the Financial Department. The establishment and activities of Kolonialdepartementet are discussed in Riksarkivets inventory of the material.
Other archives: Archives from St Barthélemy
Under Övriga arkiv there are a number of archival materials from St Barthélemy:
Volume 1: Cadastre for the town of Gustavia med quarter maps and register of property and owners, likely used from 1791 until the end of the Swedish period, in the possession of the Collectivité de Saint Barthélemy.
Volume 2: Census of the town of Gustavia, done by the new French administration in 1878, in the possession of the Collectivité de Saint Barthélemy.
Volume 3: Census of the area Sous le Vent, done by the new French administration in 1878, in the possession of the Collectivité de Saint Barthélemy.
Volume 4: Census of the area Quartiers au Vent, done by the new French administration in 1878, in the possession of the Collectivité de Saint Barthélemy.
Volume 5: Documents from the family Dinzey, dated 1819–1867, private collection, Saint Barthélemy.
Volume 6: Council minutes, dated 1797–1797, some in very bad shape, private collection, Saint Barthélemy.
Archival inventories
A list of the archival volumes digitised in the project: SweCarCol List Digitized Archival Volymes.
Several efforts to inventory archival materials connected to Swedish St Barthélemy have been done. Göran Rydeberg listed a number of collections for the Swedish National Archives (ca 2007) which contained archival materials relating to the Swedish colony, and the inventory was completed with a bibliography of printed material: Sveriges sista koloni, S:t Barthelemy i arkiven, Svenska och utländska beståndsöversikter.
Archivist Erik Norberg has created a short inventory of archival materials in English (2006).
In 2010 Per Tingbrand put together an extensive overview of archival materials and printed materials relating to Swedish St Barthélemy.
The source inventory in Ingegerd Hildebrands doctoral thesis (mentioned above) lists St Barthélemy archival materials.
In his historical study of the religious and ecclesiastical history of the Swedish colony, Jan Arvid Hellström has created an inventory of the contents of several archives, related to this topic, including British and French archives: ”-åt alla christliga förvanter-”: en undersökning av kolonial förvaltning, religionsvård och samfundsliv på S:t Barthélemy under den svenska perioden 1784–1878 (Uppsala 1987). The book is available in full text here.
The researcher Jacynthe Lavoie's inventory of FSB mentioned above also contains information on materials in other archives.