ivanaj-foundations.org

In the 1930’s Martin and Mirash Ivanaj had built a priceless private library within their home, since there were no public institutions of that type in Albania at the time. Over a period of years, they carefully collected and catalogued 16,600 books, mostly purchased abroad, and added 20 of their own personal manuscripts in a beautiful large room, especially setup for this purpose within the Ivanaj residence. Although some of the books were found by Mirash Ivanaj upon his return to Tirana from exile in 1945, these collections got entirely lost after his arrest in 1947.  Among the  current plans of the Ivanaj foundations one is to re-establish a library within the foundation’s premises as soon as the related facilities can be set in motion in Tirana.

The Ivanaj family documents, photographs, and the very large Albanian flag that was once proudly displayed at the Ivanaj home in Tirana, were saved by Mrs. Ivanaj more than 70 years ago and are still stored and preserved in New York. They will be shipped to the Institute in Tirana as soon as its own premises become available.

The books, documents, and papers that Drita Ivanaj has collected during her lifetime in the United States, will also be shipped to the Foundation Institute. The largest portion of this collection consists of business management, accounting, computer and system development, and futuristic publications, in addition to quite a variety of recorded seminars on similar topics. Instructional videos, art publications, and a large musical records collection are also included.

The plan is to put all of these materials at the disposal of anyone who wants to further his/her education, do research, make references, or even relax with music while learning! If other Albanians wish to donate some of their own materials of historical value, the Ivanaj Institute will gladly accept them for display and use in the name of their donors.
 
An accord of collaboration was established a few years ago between the Ivanaj Foundation Institute and the National Archives of Tirana, which are the repository of other Ivanaj documentation, as described in the Family Legacy – Documents  section of this site. The aim is to combine resources that will document and make available to the Albanian public as much of their history as possible in an organized and easily maintainable fashion.

For the September 2003 conference, organized by the Ivanaj Foundation Institute in Tirana (see Report – Sept.2003), the National Archives prepared 20 special large panels of the Ivanaj collections of documents and papers. They were used for an archival exhibit at the National Museum during the conference, together with various decorations awarded to Prof. Mirash Ivanaj by Albania’s government during his life time and posthumously, and preserved by Drita Ivanaj. These collections will be used again by the Ivanaj Foundation Institute in future presentations and events that may take place even outside of Tirana. This was done, for instance, at the conference that took place in Tuz (Podgoriça) in November 2004.