![\"Image](\"http:\/\/static.atlasobscura.com\/images\/place\/mundaneum.290.main.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
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A visionary precursor to the Internet made of index cards<\/b><\/p>\n
When the Mundaneum opened in 1910, its purpose was to collect all of the world\u2019s knowledge on neatly organized 3 x 5 index cards. The brainchild of Belgian lawyer Paul Otlet and Nobel Peace Prize winner Henri LaFontaine, the vast project eventually totaled 12 million cards, each classified according to the Universal Decimal Classification system developed by Otlet.<\/p>\n
Le Corbusier was one of many prominent figures enthralled by Otlet\u2019s scheme of a \u201cUniversal Book.\u201d He described it as a panorama of \u201cthe whole of human history from its origins,\u201d and signed on to design an international \u201ccity of the intellect,\u201d centered around the Mundaneum.<\/p>\n
In 1919, the Belgian government turned over 150 rooms in the Palais du Cinquantenaire to serve as a home for the Mundaneum, but five years later revoked the space to use it for a temporary exhibit on the nation\u2019s rubber industry. The Mundaneum moved into a series of smaller spaces, and eventually took over a parking garage before closing for good in 1934, the same year that Otlet published his magnum opus, “Trait\u00e9 de documentation.” Though Otlet\u2019s name is little remembered today outside the field of information science, he deserves credit for developing many of the ideas behind the modern Internet. What\u2019s left of the Mundaneum persists in a museum in the Centre d’archives de la Communaut\u00e9 Fran\u00e7aise in Mons, Belgium.<\/p>\n
Read more about Mundaneum on Atlas Obscura…<\/a><\/p>\n Category: Unique Collections<\/a>, Repositories of Knowledge<\/a> Mundaneum A visionary precursor to the Internet made of index cards When the Mundaneum opened in 1910, its purpose was to collect all of the world\u2019s knowledge on neatly organized 3 x 5 index cards. The brainchild of Belgian lawyer Paul Otlet and Nobel Peace Prize winner Henri LaFontaine, the vast project eventually totaled 12 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5978,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-374295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5978"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=374295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374295\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Location: Mons<\/a>, Belgium<\/a>
Edited by: Josh<\/a>, Henry<\/a>
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