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relevance, then at least a form of authenticity that then needs Luxury hotels are in a time warp caught between tradition and paper, now broken down into a new unit – information – 1. Since the text plays on this double meaning, it might be useful to remind the reader
to be consolidated through a series of critical cross-referencing. and modernity: tradition in terms of service, setting, decor and which is created, circulated and transmitted via new methods. that ‘the term “archives” refers both to the documents preserved and to the place in which
they are kept and the institutions responsible for them’ (translated from the Dictionnaire
Archives are also the institution that conserves the documentary way of life, and modernity in the sense of technical innovation, These rapid changes also confront us with the fear of loss, of historique de la Suisse, http://www.hls-dhs-dss.ch, consulted on 20 January 2008).
2. François Derrida, Le futur antérieur de l’archive, Paris: IMEC Editions [Questions
d’archives], p. 43.
sources of the past, created by the desire to preserve the collective amenities, management, facilities and fittings. Modernisation and the breaking of ties with even the most recent past. It is a concern 3. See Denis Bertholet’s contribution in this book, p. 316, and Cordula Seger,
heritage. The authorities are obliged to store their archives the development of hotel chains has led to a certain standardisation of large modern-day administrative and industrial organisations also in this book, p. 348.
4. Memory, History, Forgetting, translated by Kathleen Blamey, David Pellauer, University of
according to procedures laid down by law and regulations that do of style and layout, but, for the older establishments, the continual subject to a pace of change that undermines their identity. The Chicago Press, 2004.
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5. This collection has already been the subject of an initial analytical classification:
not apply to private establishments such as the Beau-Rivage. It is alterations and renovations should not entail a loss of identity memory of any company is the trace left by those who have Anne Wyssbrod, Beau-Rivage Palace Lausanne. Analyse historique et documentaire, Lausanne:
EPFL-ACM, 1992 [unpublished report].
not compulsory for hotels or private companies to safeguard their or character; they must not harm this distinction that refers as formed it, the sedimentation of knowledge and know-how, of 6. There are numerous references on this topic; I shall confine myself to mentioning Marie-
archives, or to store them in a location set aside for this purpose much to a hotel’s category and class as to the fact that it is rooted skills and abilities, of individual and collective behaviour, of Anne Chabin’s delightful book Je pense donc j’archive. L’archive dans la société de
l’information, Paris, L’Harmattan, 1999.
where they would not simply be preserved, but where efforts in tradition. This comes across in the descriptions penned to decision-making and achievements. This is a generic definition, 7. The Roland Flückiger-Seiler bibliography is extensive (see in this book, p. 232), as well

as the summary by Evelyne Lüthi-Graf, ‘Les archives de l’hôtellerie suisse: un premier
would be made to classify, catalogue and evaluate them, in other commemorate milestones – such as this year’s double anniversary but it helps us to recognise and understand some of the recent bilan’, Revue historique vaudoise 114, 2006, pp. 281-286.
8. These considerations owe a lot to the extremely thought-provoking book by Joanna Pomian,
words to perform the operations that ensure the ‘construction of an of Beau-Rivage (1858) and Beau-Rivage Palace (1908) – changes in business culture. Change, whether repeated or Mémoire d’entreprise. Techniques et outils de la gestion du savoir, Paris, Les éditions
Sapientia, 1996.
archive’ in the fullest sense. Thus referring to documents stored moments with a long history behind them. Different times mean sudden, can threaten the chain of continuity required for the
in attics or locked away in cupboards as ‘archives’ is merely a a different attitude to memory. In 1958, the centenary plaque company’s very operation, can make it incapable of developing its
linguistic convenience: it should, at this point, be referred to as a explored the establishment’s past in a way that tended to gloss production processes as a result of not memorising the operations
documentary source that still has to undergo a series of qualifying over its rougher edges, expressing a generally positive view and that constituted it. It is not necessarily the remotest past that is
operations before it can be granted a status that will ensure its emphasising the part played by important events and celebrities. lost, but the most recent, which is still alive and necessary for the
conservation, visibility and accessibility. Fifty years later, the articles in this book call on the archive – even company’s existence.
Public archives hold little material relating to the hotel if it does not easily lend itself to producing a commemorative The move to build up company memories is not only driven
industry heritage; those of the City of Lausanne are the depositories narrative. The writers consult it and test it out, partly with the by the needs of historians or archivists seeking new subject matter,
of the Alexandra and Angleterre’s archives and the Gibbon’s aim of understanding how the past contributes to the present. or by the obsession with our heritage that is characteristic of our
guest register. Until now, objects have been collected mostly by Today the question of the relationship between the hotel and society and our times – it is also a testimony to a pressing need:
private associations, chiefly for museums: the Swiss Hostelry and its heritage is a different one, given the new problems it faces, that of preserving a memory, of not severing the link to a past
Tourism Museum in Zurich based on Dorothée and Beat Kleiner’s particularly with regard to management and recording practices. rendered precarious by present confusion.
collection, the Swiss Gastronomy Museum in Schadau Castle in It may well be that the old archives will stand the test of Cataloguing and digitalising the impressive Beau-Rivage
Thun, the H.-Ueli Gubser collection in Basle, to name but three. time better than the digital files produced over the last decades. Palace archives is not simply a question of capitalising on or
This is why the establishment of a Swiss Hotel Archives Foundation The Internet revolution has changed everything, challenging safeguarding a heritage: it is necessary for the collection to be part
is an important step towards gaining recognition and promoting a the very idea of an archive being accessible online, a ‘domain’ of an online archive network. It is also an opportunity to open
heritage that has been of interest mainly to architectural historians, where it seems more fragile, perishable and open to abuse and it up to comparative and cross-disciplinary approaches, different
and more recently to historians of the tourist industry. The most manipulation than ever. These are not only quantitative but interpretative readings and perhaps even new presentations in
significant hotel industry research programme, conducted by also qualitative changes, with every technological development a ‘future perfect’ which, just like our own uncertain era, will be
Roland Flückiger-Seiler, focused on hotels built between 1830 impacting on archive and memory: handwriting was replaced seeking origins, meaning and identity.
and 1920. Although this initiative helps save archives, it clearly first by print and now by digital media. The exponential increase
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does not do justice to the complexity of a history which is largely in the amount of data and the diversification of recording media
still unwritten, and whose many facets are illustrated by the diverse and access methods have also led to a radical redefinition of the
chapters in this book. very concept of a document, traditionally associated with writing

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