About The Brewer-Curcin Archive
The Brewer–Ćurčin Archive is a privately preserved family archive documenting the intellectual, political, and cultural life of Milan Ćurčin (1880–1960), founder and editor of Nova Evropa, one of the most influential interwar Yugoslav journals. Maintained in continuous family custody since the 1940s and never previously dispersed or institutionalized, the archive represents one of the strongest surviving provenance chains associated with a major Balkan literary-intellectual figure.
The collection contains the largest known unified holding of Nova Evropa, including approximately 678 individual issues and 9 hardbound annual volumes, many preserved as annotated editorial copies with manuscript-level corrections and internal working notes. The archive also includes original Nova Evropa editorial manuscripts, unpublished typescripts, and associated artwork, including original Ivan Meštrović illustrations and design material connected to the publication.
Additional major holdings include one of the largest private collections of Srpski Književni Glasnik (171 issues), extensive interwar Yugoslav literary and political journals, WWI exile materials, government and diplomatic correspondence, and a substantial body of political and social history documentation.
Among its most important visual and artistic materials are:
- A rare collection of 50+ original Balkan Wars glass plate negatives (c. 1912–1913), documenting battlefield scenes, troop movements, field hospitals, refugee return, and King Petar I;
- Original Alkar tapestry/cartoon drawings and associated design works;
- Original Meštrović-related materials connected to Nova Evropa and the wider Yugoslav intellectual network.
The archive also preserves family papers, passports, wartime correspondence, postcards, photographs, and inscribed books and journals from major regional figures including Ivo Andrić, Miroslav Krleža, Tin Ujević, Stanislav Vinaver, Rastko Petrović, and Ivan Meštrović.
As a unified archive combining literary culture, political history, wartime documentation, editorial production, and original visual art with direct family provenance, the Brewer–Ćurčin Archive constitutes one of the most comprehensive surviving private archives relating to interwar Yugoslav intellectual and cultural history.