On the Waterfront 40
On the Waterfront is the semi-annual magazine of the IISH. This is issue 40 (2020).
This fortieth issue of On the Waterfront appears at an historic moment in several respects. One obvious reason why this is an exceptional moment is the Covid-19 pandemic, which has caused unprecedented disruption of daily life, the economy, and global politics throughout the world.
Of course the IISH has been affected as well. In mid-March, the Institute shut down completely, for visitors and staff alike, to reopen again gradually in early June, with staff able to come to the Institute again whenever necessary and the reading room ready to readmit a limited number of visitors in the near future. As a result of this situation, the Friends Day in June had to be cancelled.
This is also the first issue for which I am writing an introduction as the new director of the IISH. On 1 April Henk Wals concluded his long career at the IISH earlier than initially planned to accept the KNAW’s request to become director of Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS-KNAW), an institute for permanent access to research data, thereby postponing his retirement, which was originally scheduled for September.
