ARCHIVES WILL BRING ALIVE IISC’S 100-YEAR EVENTFUL JOURNEY. YOU, TOO, CAN JOIN THE PARTY

ARCHIVES WILL BRING ALIVE IISC’S 100-YEAR EVENTFUL JOURNEY. YOU, TOO, CAN JOIN THE PARTY
Amit S Upadhye | TNN

Bangalore: You, too, can be part of the premier IISc’s centenary celebrations if you have a newspaper cutting, a rare photograph of the institute, a videotape or a recorded speech or letters of correspondence with IISc. All you have to do is submit them to the archive cell of IISc centenary celebrations.
Even if you have none of the above, you are still in demand. Do you have any special memories about the institute? Inform the archive cell members and they would record it.
Though the institute library itself has tons of documents, letters, audio and videotapes about the institute from 1890, it’s still making an effort to collect every bit of information from across the globe.
Soon, the archive members will tour Europe to acquire some of the old documents about IISc. The team would visit the India House in London, and a few universities where the early faculty of IISc taught. The team is also in touch with National Archives in New Delhi, Palace Archives in Mysore, Ramakrishna Math in Malur, Kolkata, and Tata Foundation in Mumbai.
“The IISc concept began offshore when J R D Tata interacted with Swami Vivekananda on his way to Chicago. Some excerpts were printed in the Math newsletter. We are positive about collecting some early newsletters of the Malur Math printed in Bengali,’’ explains Prof S Venkadesan, chief librarian, IISc.
“We’ve also contacted Tata Foundation in Mumbai to provide us with letters on IISc. After a brief announcement a few months ago, we’ve received positive response and old-timers and alumnus are already sending in photographs and other correspondence to us,’’ he added.
IISc is planning a memorabilia exhibition during the centenary celebrations. Mail that piece of history to: iisc.archives@ gmail.com; venky@library.iisc.ernet or call 080-22932408.
IN THE MEMORABILIA
Sketch of IISc building Group photo of workers who built the structure Rare photos of Mahatma Gandhi, Pt Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabhbhai Patel and young Indira Gandhi at the institute A letter of an old student about his life on the campus during 1930s