VOC Letters and Papers Digital Search

VOC Letters and Papers Digital Search

GLOBALISE, is an ambitious initiative dedicated to unlocking the vast potential of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) archives, recognised by UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register. These archives are a window into the early modern world, revealing the global networks and human stories that connected Asia, Africa, and Australia in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. For many of these regions, where historical records are scarce, the VOC archives provide rare and invaluable insights into cross-cultural encounters, trade, and colonial dynamics.

From 2022 to 2026,, through cutting-edge AI technologies, GLOBALISE is transcribing and analysing millions of handwritten documents to make this extraordinary collection accessible to all. Our goal is to empower researchers, educators, and the public to explore these sources and to inspire new, inclusive histories of the global past.

Of relevance to the Cape of Good Hope letters and papers, are the following series that have been digitally transcribed:

• Overgekomen brieven en papieren uit Indië aan de Heren XVII en de kamer Amsterdam
• Overgekomen brieven en papieren uit Kaap de Goede Hoop aan de Heren XVII en de kamer Amsterdam
• Verslag van de commissarissen-generaal over Kaap de Goede Hoop
• Overgekomen brieven en papieren ontvangen uit Kaap de Goede Hoop betreffende de expeditie naar Rio Delagoa en de vestiging aldaar
• Kopie-missiven en -rapporten ingekomen bij gouverneur-generaal en raden van de kantoren in Indië

To simply our ability to search across the records, the following table groups the documents into 10-year groups, that can assist with narrowing down your search. Once you have navigated to the GLOBALISE website, please ensure you update your search criteria in the text search box called "Full Text Search". Read more about how to search in detail here.