MUNDANEUM

The origins of the Mundaneum date back to the late ^19th century. The story is told in the museum's permanent exhibition, opening in April 2023 and entitled "Machine à penser le monde" ("World Thinking Machine").

Created on the initiative of Paul Otlet (1868-1944) and Henri La Fontaine (1854-1943), the project aimed to bring together all the world's knowledge in one place. A universal documentation center, it was intended to be a hub for all disciplines of human knowledge. Given the scale of the task, the two men had to give priority to certain fields. They showed a constant interest in international documentation, with an ever-awakening curiosity for the evolution of technology and science. They were also active on issues linked to major ideological movements such as pacifism. The Mundaneum, or "Google of paper", includes extensive holdings and collections: the Musée International de la Presse, the Répertoire Iconographique Universel - posters, postcards, glass plates, photographs - the Répertoire Universel de Documentation, the papers of Henri La Fontaine and Paul Otlet, the feminism and anarchism collections and the archives of the Friends of the Palais Mondial... It represents some 6 km of amassed documents. The Mundaneum, now recognized as the French community's private archive center and exhibition space, is committed to the principles of the knowledge society and access to information for all, with the creation of a cyber space: the Munda Web.