De redactie

25 jaar Historisch-Geografisch Tijdschrift

Historisch-geografisch Tijdschrift 25 (2007) 49 - 61.

De aandacht van een tijdschriftredactie is gewoonlijk vooral gericht op de toekomst: de productie van de eerstkomende nummers, het bijeenbrengen van voldoende kopij, het onderhouden van contacten met auteurs en uitgever. Na 25 jaar vooruitkijken is nu het moment gekomen eens terug te kijken en te reflecteren op een kwart eeuw Historisch-Geografisch Tijdschrift. Wij zijn als redactie de afgelopen jaren zelden op de voorgrond getreden. Voor deze bijzondere gelegenheid doen wij dit in onderstaande bijdrage. Hierin belichten wij het ontstaan en de ontwikkeling van ons tijdschrift en laten wij u delen in onze ervaringen van de afgelopen 25 jaar.

25 Years Historisch-Geografisch Tijdschrift

The editors of the Historisch-Geografisch Tijdschrift (Magazine for Historical Geography) reflect on the occasion of the 25th jubilee year. The Historisch-Geografisch Tijdschrift (HGT) was an initiative of students' associations of both the Free University in Amsterdam and the Utrecht University. At that time a magazine in the field of historical geography did not exist in the Netherlands. The first number of the new HGT magazine was published in March 1983. The goal was to function as a medium for the exchange of information in the field of historical geography; the magazine was meant for those involved in this discipline, but also for all others interested in the subject. The number of editors of the HGT magazine has been rather restricted in the course of the past 25 years: nowadays two of the original editors are still part of the current group of seven editors.

In the first period the editors also took care of a number of publishing activities, such as the layout of the magazine, subscribers records and mailing activities. As far as the articles in the HGT magazine are concerned, the intention was that the magazine would offer a platform for the publication of articles about local and regional historical geography, as well as thematic subjects and items focussed on practise. Articles with theoretical and methodical views and results of research were welcomed as well. The editors have always aspired to keep up the scientific quality as well as the social relevance of the magazine. Apart from the regular magazine numbers, a number of times special editions were published about certain topics. Also the editors of the HGT magazine published a few books. The best known is 'Het Nederlandse Landschap' (The Dutch Landscape) the 10th edition of which will appear a year from now. An English edition of this book will be available as well.

In the course of the past 25 years a number of articles that were published in the HGT magazine have proven to be leading in the field of historical geography. Some of these are theoretical; others are of a renewing nature in this field or can be considered to be review articles. The other parts of the magazine, comprising the information section (Berichten), the survey of recent literature and the book reviews, are considered very useful. Although the magazine is mostly orientated on subjects in the Netherlands, sometimes attention is paid to the historical geography in surrounding countries and information is given about congresses and conferences abroad. Since 1991 for our foreign subscribers an English summary is added to the articles.
The editors have analysed the subjects covered in the articles. Vervloet also made such an analysis in 1998, after 15 editions of the magazine had been published. Now the subjects covered by the articles have been categorized again, resulting in a number of findings: the variety of subjects is considerable. The quantitatively most important subject, taking up 23 %, is 'the agrarian landscape and settlements'. Then five subjects follow taking up about the same percentage. A classification of the articles according to region was drawn up as well.

A highlight of the past years is the so-called Landview price, which the editors were awarded in 1996 for their excellent work in producing this magazine. The editors wish to thank all individuals and organizations involved with the HGT-magazine, especially our authors as well as our publisher, the Matrijs Foundation in Utrecht, which supported us from the beginning. In the years to come the editors intend to keep up with new developments in the field of historical geography, in cooperation with other scientific disciplines. Increasing interest in the landscape and local and regional historical geography will be a stimulus for the editors to continue to produce the HGT magazine in the future.