This year, the Carhif is celebrating its 30th anniversary! 🎉 On this occasion, we present to you the favorites of the team throughout the year 2025.
Today, it is Els, coordinator and archivist at Carhif since its beginnings, who presents her favorite: a cordial and warm correspondence from the International Council of Women.
English translation of the video
Els: I’m Els. I’ve been working at the archive centre since the very beginning, since it opened in 1995. And yes, it’s wonderful to see how the collection has grown over the past thirty years and everything we’ve been able to achieve in that time.
AVG: What is your favourite item in our collection?
Els: It was a difficult choice, but I chose some correspondence from one of the larger archives we keep, that of the International Council of Women, which was founded in 1888 and still exists to this day.
AVG: Can you tell us a little more about it?
Els: This is correspondence from the 1930s between the chairwoman of the International Women’s Council, Lady Aberdeen, and her treasurer, Karin Glaesel. We can see how Karin Glaesel signs with “Terrier” and is also addressed by her chairwoman as “My dear terrier”. So there is clearly a close friendship between the two. A pet name is used, which remains intact throughout the correspondence.
AVG: Why is this one of your favorites?
Els: I chose this correspondence because it shows how women not only talk to each other about how to run their organisation, the ins and outs of it, but also very often about personal matters. They write about their families, about how their husbands and children or grandchildren are doing, about their health. So you see the personal and the more organisational aspects intertwining all the time. And I have often wondered whether you would find the same thing in correspondence from, for example, international organisations where men are mainly at the helm.