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International Colonial and Export Exhibition 1883

Name variations: Universal Exhibition of 1883

In 1883, the International Colonial and Export Exhibition, also known as the World (or Universal) Exhibition, was held on what is now Museumplein in Amsterdam in 1883 from 1 May until 1 October. In addition to a Dutch colonial pavilion displaying many objects from eastern and western colonies, other countries and companies also held exhibitions.

Description

Between 1 May and 31 October 1883, the International Colonial and Export Trade Exhibition, better known as the Amsterdam World Exhibition, was held on the vacant ground behind the Rijksmuseum, which was under construction at the time. Although there was initially little enthusiasm for organising a universal exhibition in the Netherlands, French entrepreneur Edouard Agostini, with the help of foreign investors, managed to persuade the Dutch government. After exhibitions in Vienna, London, Philadelphia and Paris, the Frenchman felt the time was right to showcase the colonial trade in Amsterdam.

The main entrance to the exhibition, located directly behind the Rijksmuseum, consisted of two towers made of imitation marble, decorated with Hindu ornamentation and supported by plaster cast plaster elephants. Behind the main entrance was the so-called industry hall, where participating countries displayed their colonial goods and industrial products. To the left of this hall was the Dutch colonial pavilion, the most significant part of the exhibition. This pavilion, designed in a distinctive Moorish-Arabic style, was flanked by two statues: one of Jan Pieterszoon Coen and one of the goddess Victoria, which served as an allegory for the Dutch 'victory' in the Aceh War. Next to this Aceh monument was the so-called Indian village, where eight wooden and bamboo houses from different Indonesian regions were displayed, including their inhabitants. These people, among others Sumatrans, Sundanese and Javanese, were forced to display their crafts during the exhibition, a gamelan performance was held every day. Elsewhere on the grounds was a Surinamese village. As in the Indonesian village, Surinamese houses and inhabitants were exhibited to the European audience.

The Dutch colonial pavilion was put together by Pieter Johannes Veth, a Dutch geographer and ethnologist. He also wrote the scientific catalogue after the exhibition ended. To compile the objects in the Dutch pavilion, Veth enlisted the help of various Dutch curators, such as Lindor Serrurier from the Rijks Etnographisch Museum (now the Wereldmuseum Leiden) and Fredericus Anna Jentink from the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie (now Naturalis), also located in Leiden. P.J. Veth's son, Daniël Veth, was responsible for collecting objects in the Dutch East Indies. He also came up with the idea for the Indonesian village. The exhibition layout devised by P.J. Veth consisted of three main groups, divided into 38 subclasses. Group I concerned 'The territory of the colonised and ruled regions', group II 'The indigenous population of those regions' and group III 'The Europeans in those regions and their relations with the natives'. While this arrangement built on outdated perceptions, it also legitimised the modern Dutch colonial enterprise: the natural wealth and surpluses (group I) and the exotic primitivism of the indigenous population (group II) called for the modernising and civilising entrepreneurship of the Dutch government and private individuals (group III). As decorative material, the pavilion displayed a number of maps of the Dutch East Indies and various trophies of weapons and flags, which came from the Bronbeek Military Disabled Home More information about what other countries exhibited during the World Exhibition in Amsterdam can be found in Marieke Bloembergen's book Colonial spectacles : the Netherlands and the Dutch East Indies at the world exhibitions, 1880-1931.

Provenance research

After the World Exhibition ended, the objects that had been exhibited in the Dutch colonial pavilion were distributed among various Dutch ethnographic museums. Some ended up at the museum of the Indische Instelling (the predecessor of Museum Nusantara, the Colonial Museum in Haarlem (a precursor to the Wereldmuseum Amsterdam and the Artis Ethnographic Museum. The majority went to the Rijks Etnografisch Museum in Leiden. In addition, during the World Exhibition, the Leiden museum acquired a collection of Japanese Buddha statues, which still form an important part of the Wereldmuseum's collection in Leiden.

The catalogue that P.J. Veth wrote to accompany his object arrangement is available digitally via Leiden University. The three volumes cover the three groups of objects described above. There is also a catalogue by Lindor Suerrurier that covers ethnographic objects that were displayed outside the Dutch colonial pavilion, including the collection of the English Lieutenant General Pitt Rivers. Photographer Friedrich Carel Hisgen, together with French geographer Roland Bonaparte, took several photographs of the Surinamese families that were exhibited in the Surinamese village. In 1894, the photographs were published in Les Habitants de Suriname; notes receuillies à l'exposition coloniale d'Amsterdam en 1883, which is also available through Leiden University. The photo collection of the [Wereldmuseum Rotterdam], which is housed at the Nederlands Fotomuseum, contains a large number of photos from the World Exhibition in 1883. Please note: these photos also show people from the former Dutch East Indies and Suriname who were exhibited.

The various museums that subsequently received objects have archive material about objects from the World Exhibition. The National Archives in The Hague has the documentation on the purchase and distribution of the collections from the World Exhibition. The archive mainly consists of correspondence with various museums after the distribution had already been made. A clear list of the distribution of the collection is not available in this archive.

Resources

Related items

Artis Ethnographic Museum
Museum Nusantara
Rijksmuseum Amsterdam
Museum Bronbeek
Wereldmuseum Leiden
Wereldmuseum Rotterdam
The trade in objects from a colonial context
Civil servants in colonised territories
Naturalis Biodiversity Center
Wereldmuseum Amsterdam
Scientific research in colonised territories

Keywords

World's Fair
Ehtnografic objects

Geographical

Indonesia
Suriname
ABCSSS islands

Period of activity

1883