This collection is described in Collection guide Jacques Henry Abendanon (letters Kartini) (ubl249).
Kartini Letters (KITLV)
Letters to Jacques Henry Abendanon and his wife Rosa Manuela Abendanon-Mandri from Kartini and others
D H 1200 - 111
Kartini Letters (KITLV)
Jacques Henry Abendanon (1852-1925), born in Suriname, studied Law in Leiden and Delft. In 1874, he left for Java where he was affiliated with a number of courts of justice. Four years later, he was appointed President of the Landraad in Pati, and in 1881, he became member of the Judicial Council in Batavia.
Just widowed, Abendanon took leave and returned to the Netherlands. There he met his second wife, Rosa Mandri (1857-1944), and together they travelled back to the Dutch East Indies, where he was appointed Director of the Department of Education, Religion and Industry (Onderwijs, Eeredienst en Nijverheid). It was then that they got acquainted with the Regent’s daughter, Raden Adjeng Kartini (1879-1904). The majority of letters by Kartini in this collection are addressed to Rosa Abendanon-Mandri. Kartini’s notion of education for girls is a recurring topic in the many letters that she wrote, being a diligent communicant within a broad circle of friends and acquaintances. She did not live to see her ideas spread beyond that circle of communicants. After her untimely death, J.H. Abendanon deemed her letters highly important and published them in 1911 under the title Door duisternis tot licht [Through darkness into the light]. That book has had an enormous impact in the Dutch East Indies and led to the founding of the so-called Kartini-schools for Indonesian girls. In Indonesia, Kartini is to date celebrated as a pioneer for female emancipation.
This collection was donated to the KITLV in 1986 by J.H. Abendanon (Jr). In 2001 C. Fasseur donated a supplement. Together with the KITLV collection the letters were transferred to Leiden University Libraries in 2014 where they are kept on long-term loan.