The permanent collection
The collection of Wereldmuseum began in 1885 and currently
numbers some 100,000 objects and 100,000 photographs (dating from
around 1860), as well as albums, prints, maps and atlases,
drawings, slides and posters. Since its inception, the museum has
received major donations from private collectors such as Dr E. van
Rijckenvorsel, from shipping companies and from the Dutch
Missionary Society. In 1939 Rotterdam's Blijdorp Zoological Society
made a major contribution to the ethnography collection.
The foundation for the museum's unique collection from New
Guinea was laid in 1909 by the Lorentz expedition to the Snow
Mountains. In the 1950s and 60s the museum's approach to collecting
began to feel the influence of cultural anthropology. Journeys were
undertaken specifically to collect materials for exhibitions. In
the 1970s, attention turned to development issues in third-world
countries. The collection was therefore supplemented with objects
that people in third-world countries made for their own daily use.
Since the end of the 1980s the museum has updated its collection by
keeping up with current developments in art and culture in the
non-western world.
A representative sample of the museum's collection is accessible
through our digital database. You will be able to search the
database with the help of a thesaurus. If you want to search in the
Wereldmuseum collection click on SEARCH. The information in the database is
only avalable in Dutch. The museum's database will be
expanded regularly and keywords will create virtual collections-of
batik, for example-that cannot be viewed as such in the museum.
Requesting a photograph
If you need a photograph for your own research or for a
publication, please contact one of these email adresses: skentie@wereldmuseum.nl
(for objects) of agroeneveld@wereldmuseum.nl
(for photos in the photo collection).