NLAI to Borrow Qajar Era Documents From Belgium

A collection of pictures and documents from the Qajar era (1785-1925) will be unveiled at an exhibition in Tehran next spring by the National Library and Archives Organization of Iran (NLAI).

The event was planned after the library deputy of NLAI Gholam Reza Amirkhani travelled to Belgium and met Mark Molitor, a grandson of Lambert Molitor (1875-1959), a Qajar era Belgian counselor in administration of customs and postal service, Mehr News Agency reported.

During his years in Iran, Lambert gathered a unique collection of pictures and documents. For a period, he was the superintendent of the customs houses in the cities of Kermanshah, Bushehr, Zahedan and Zabol. Belgian officials improved and modernized the customs service in Iran up until World War II broke out.

Following talks between Amirkhani and Mark Molitor, it was agreed that the collection left behind by Mark’s grandfather be displayed in spring at the NLAI premises.

The documentation system of the national archives is 47 years old, and now holds about 3 million files. Earlier in May, Ashraf Boroujerdi, head of the NLAI said: “There are documents in other countries that surely are of significance to Iran. We need to make arrangements to make them accessible.”