Science

Description

The development of various scientific disciplines, such as ethnography and geology, during mainly the nineteenth century went hand in hand with the European colonial and imperial expansion. The Dutch colonial territories and the nature, culture and population present there, consequently formed an important source for scientific research by scholars from the Netherlands and other countries. A well-known example where scientific research and colonial oppression went hand in hand are the excavations that took place under Eugène Dubois on Sumatra and Java at the end of the nineteenth century, during which forced labourers excavated a collection of nearly 40,000 objects. This collection is still part of Naturalis in Leiden to this day, and the Homo erectus fossils found during these excavations are still considered an important scientific discovery. Without the colonial system, Eugène Dubois would not have been able to achieve this kind of discovery.

Furthermore, European scientists often had broader interests than their own field of study. So it may well be that a geologist also collected other types of objects and later donated them to a museum. Missionaries also engaged in scientific research in addition to baptizing the local population. So the collections they collected were not only collected from the point of view of their mission, but could also have had a scientific character. Often objects collected by missionaries were used for teaching in the Netherlands. Special attention should also be paid to photography. This relatively new technique developed in the nineteenth century, was frequently used during scientific research in the colonial territories. These photographs later often remained part of the collections and thus contributed to the image that was created in Europe of the nature, the people and their culture in the colonies.

Scientists in the colonies were often affiliated with a Dutch university or gradually became so. It nevertheless was not always the case that scientists active in Dutch colonies were exclusively from the Netherlands; other Europeans also conducted scientific research in these regions. Moreover, there are also examples of local scientists whose collected objects were also sent to the Netherlands. A well-known example is the Indonesian painter, scientist and writer Raden Saleh. In addition to an affiliation with a university in Europe, there were also all kinds of associations where scientists gathered. Well-known examples are the Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde (KITLV) in the Netherlands and the Bataviaasch Genootschap der Kunsten en Wetenschappen in Indonesia. The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) also had strong ties to the colonies. Through such associations and universities, the findings of scientific research were published in all kinds of journals and books. The objects, documents and photographs collected during the research at a later time often found their way into the collections of the institutions to which the researchers in question belonged.

As such, practically all colonial collections in the Netherlands have some form of connection to scientific research in colonized areas. In addition to well-known museums such as the Wereldmuseum, Naturalis and Rijksmuseum, many university museums also contain collections collected in former colonies.

Provenance research

Provenance research into scientific collections collected in formerly colonized areas will often begin with a specific individual or scientific institution or association. Archives on collections are often located at the relevant institutions or local archives. To find what you are looking for, knowledge of the Dutch archival landscape is important. For example, the archives of the University of Amsterdam are located at the Stadsarchief Amsterdam. The Leiden University maintains its own archive and the archive of the [Utrecht University] can be found at the provincial Utrechts Archief. Archives relating to specific scientists may also be in the possession of descendants.

Also note that scientists may have been active at several institutions. It thus may be worthwhile to consult several archives, where it is obviously most fruitful to search within archives from the period when the scientist was part of that institution. Several scientific societies also possess archival material, which again can be found in various Dutch archives. Archives of correspondence can also contain valuable information about the provenance of certain objects.

Finally, it is also possible that archives in the former colonized regions still contain information about scientific collections. At the Arsip Nasional Republik Indonesia (ANRI), for example, a range of archives of the Bataviaasch Genootschap can be found.

Resources

• Kuitenbrouwer, Maarten. Tussen oriëntalisme en wetenschap: het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde in historisch verband 1851-2001. Leiden: KITLV Uitgeverij, 2001.
  Dutch version from 2001 of the book by Kuitenbrouwer above. —
• Andreas, Weber. 2019. “Collecting Colonial Nature: European Naturalists and the Netherlands Indies in the Early Nineteenth Century.” Bmgn: Low Countries Historical Review.
  Article about the history of the Natuurkundige Commissie voor Nederlandsch-Indië (Committee for Natural History of the Netherlands Indies). — https://doi.org/10.18352/bmgn-lchr.10741
• Holthuis, Lipke. 1820 - 1958 : Rijksmuseum Van Natuurlijke Historie. Nationaal Natuurhistorisch Museum, Leiden, 1995.
  Book from 1995 describing the history of the then Nationaal Natuurhistorisch Museum from 1820 through 1958. Contains structured information about the construction of the museum collection and the curators of the time. — https://repository.naturalis.nl/pub/268714
• Kuitenbrouwer, Maarten and Harry A. Poeze. Dutch scholarship in the age of empire and beyond: KITLV - the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies, 1851-2011. Leiden: Brill, 2014.
  Historiography of the KITLV that covers one hundred and fifty years of KITLV history, but is at the same time a history of the scholarship regarding the (former) Dutch colonies. This is an English version, not a one-on-one translation, of the in 2001 published Tussen oriëntalisme en wetenschap (see below). —