Rotterdam Almanac

The Rotterdam Almanac (1888 - present) contains a wide variety of articles and recurring segments on the history of Rotterdam. You can search through the almanac by a word from the title of the article, by author or by any word from the text. You can also browse an individual almanac online.

The City Archive of Rotterdam publishes the almanac in cooperation with the history society Roterodamum.
Members of this society receive the paper edition free of charge every year. Non-members can buy the publication in the reading room at the city archive for €24.95.

To the Rotterdam almanac

Frequently asked questions

The almanac has a number of regular sections:

  • The Daily chronicle: this section summarises the main events for each day in the previous year of the alamanc's publication. The 2023 Rotterdam almanac includes the Daily chronicle of 2022.
  • ‘In Memoriam’ - memories about deceased well-known Rotterdam residents
  • An overview of mayor & aldermen and members of the city council
  • An overview of historical and genealogical Rotterdam societies and foundations
  • In addition, it contains a number of extensive articles on historical Rotterdam subjects or persons.

Would you like to write an article for the Rotterdam almanac? You can, if your article meets our conditions.
Please read the document ‘Guidelines for authors’, which you can request from the editorial secretary.

The chief editor of the Rotterdam almanac is the municipal archivist. She is assisted by an editorial board with experts in archaeology, conservation of monuments, art history, maritime and urban history:

  • Erika Hokke, editor-in-chief
  • Anne Jongstra, editorial secretary
  • Alexandra van Dongen
  • Pieter Jan Klapwijk
  • Thieu Knibbeler
  • Paul van de Laar
  • Siebe Thissen
  • Wanda Waanders

The address of the editor is:

Stadsarchief Rotterdam

Attn: Mr. A. JOngstra

Postbus 71

3000AB Rotterdam

 

You can search the Rotterdam almanac in various ways. You can browse, quickly search for a word in the text, or perform an advanced search by author's name, title or year. The advanced search function also allows you to combine or exclude words. The search function also includes a spell checker that ensures you can find words whose spelling has changed over time with their contemporary equivalent.

  • Quick Search or  "Snel zoeken". Here you can type in any word. The system searches through all articles containing this word. Chances are you will then get many hits.
  • Advanced search or "Uitgebreid zoeken". With this search function you have more options to refine or increase your results. You can also search specifically for words from the title or the author's name.
  • An asterisk (*) allows you to search for different word variants, e.g. armenh* searches for both almshouses, almshouse and almshouse.
  • The browse function or "bladerfunctie". In the left-hand column, select the desired year of publication. You can then use the arrows to scroll through the yearbook.
  • If you are looking for an article by a specific author, select which year you are looking for in the ‘Navigate by year’ or "Navigeer naar jaar" list.
    Once you have selected the year, a list of authors appears on the right.

In the early days, the almanac was published irregularly. Some years were missing because there was no money to publish the almanac. From 1947 onwards, it was published every year.

If you have found an article, there is a button called ‘Article’ at the top. Click it, and you can download the article in pdf form.
If you want to download a page, click the ‘Page’ button. The page will then also appear in PDF form for you to download.

The articles and photos in the Yearbook are copyrighted. Would you like to reuse the information? Please contact the editors.

Rotterdam City Archives
Attn: Mr A. Jongstra
Postbus 71
3000 AB Rotterdam
a.jongstra@rotterdam.nl

Please contact us, we are happy to help.