TROPENMUSEUM

Description

Essentials about the Tropenmuseum in brief

If you are interested in ethnology in general and the history of the Dutch colonies in particular, you should make your way to the Tropenmuseum. The Museum of Ethnology is one of the largest museums in Amsterdam. In addition to colonial history, the Tropenmuseum also devotes special exhibitions to ethnological, historical and developmental topics.

The history of the Tropenmuseum

It was founded in 1864 in the neighboring city of Haarlem as a colonial museum and opened to the public in 1871. The objective of the museum at the time was to inform the Dutch population about life in the then Dutch colonies of the Dutch Indies (now Indonesia), Dutch Guiana (now Suriname) and the Dutch Antilles (Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao). It also initially served to conduct research to increase profits from the colonies, such as improving coffee production.

In 1926, the museum was housed in a new building in Amsterdam, which was the largest structure in the city at the time. It is particularly rich in architectural and pictorial allusions to the colonies of the time. After Indonesia proclaimed its independence in 1945, the collection was expanded to include objects from other areas of the tropics. In the 1960s and 1970s, attention turned increasingly to development issues such as poverty and hunger. Today, the goal of the Tropemuseum is to broaden awareness of other cultures and to promote communication with these cultures.

The collection of the Tropenmuseum

The collection comprises around 175,000 objects, including some 21,000 textiles, mainly from Indonesia, and 5,500 musical instruments. In addition, there are 155,000 historical photographs from the years 1855 to 1940, mostly from the Dutch colonies at the time. The museum also owns around 10,000 drawings, paintings and documents.

In addition to the permanent collection, the Tropenmuseum also hosts special exhibitions that include ethnological and historical objects as well as traditional and contemporary visual art and photographs. With the Tropenmuseum Junior, there is also a section specially designed for children with numerous interactive exhibits.