Leiden University Libraries Digital Collections

Biography
Henri Titus Damsté (1874-1955) was enrolled at the Delft Royal Academy from 1891 until 1894. Late in 1894, he went to Batavia, where he, waiting for being posted, worked at the Department of Internal Affairs. In 1896, he was appointed aspirant-controleur at Sumatra’s Westcoast, where he stayed until 1902. Subsequently, he was sent to Aceh and, a year later, to South-Celebes (now South-Sulawesi). Due to illness, he spent a sabbatical year in the Netherlands but returned in 1906 to the Netherlands East Indies. As controleur, he was then posted in the residency of Palembang and, after holding posts in Aceh and Bali, he was promoted assistant-resident of Makassar. His time in Makkassar (1913-1919) was interspersed by two sabbatical leaves (mid-1914 and 1918). From 1919 until his retirement in April 1923, Damsté held the prestigious position of resident of Bali and Lombok.
This collection was donated by the Stichting Oosters Instituut (Foundation The Oriental Institute) in 1979; Mrs. U.T. Damsté and B. Schmitz donated supplements in 1955 and in the 1990s (exact date unknown). This collection contains primarily correspondence dating from the period that Damsté worked in Sumatra, Celebes, Bali and Lombok.
Together with the KITLV collection, this collection was transferred to Leiden University Libraries in 2014 where it is kept on long-term loan.