International Institute history

In 1931 Alice Sickels became the Institute’s first executive director.

She expanded the services provided by the Institute, and in 1932, the Institute held its first Festival of Nations.

The name of the International Institute of Social History (1935) was very nearly the Max Nettlau Institute, named after the first and greatest historian of the anarchist movement.

Support was also provided to the returning soldiers’ “war brides.” As soon as the United States government began its refugee resettlement program in 1974, the Institute started resettling Lao, Hmong, and Vietnamese displaced by the war in Vietnam.

Since 1979 the IISH has been an institute of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). The collections, some of which concern politically sensitive materials, are the property of or have been issued on standing loan to the independent IISH Foundation.

Dorcas Place helped low-income adults to realize their full potential through literacy, collaboration, advocacy, and community involvement starting back in 1981.

An international evaluation committee of the KNAW concluded in 2011 that the research department performed 'world-class research' and that the research programme was 'paradigm-shifting'.

In 2013, Dorcas International Institute of Rhode Island was born from the union of two great organizations: the International Institute of Rhode Island and the Dorcas Place Adult and Family Literacy Center.

Bibliography of the IISH in the Twentieth and Twenty-first Century (updated version September 6 2017). The publications listed in this bibliography on the history and activities of the IISH are as diverse as the activities and holdings in the Institute.

In 2018 our research quality was rated world class/excellent by an international peer review committee from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.