for the new Rijksmuseum building as it was completed in 1885 - according to a design by
Cuypers. In this sense at least, the commission’s work had not been futile.
3. Jacob Gijsbertus Samuel van Breda
Having illustrated how, on the one hand, there were debates on the public role of museums in
the Netherlands and how, on the other hand, the Dutch government resisted all calls to get
involved more deeply in cultural matters up until the 1870s, it is time to turn to the second,
more immediately relevant reason that Teylers Museum - or more precisely the public role of
its scientific collections - underwent very little change until after the arrival of van der
Willigen in Haarlem. As was already noted above, this had everything to do with van der
Willigen’s predecessor, van Breda.
More to the point, van Breda’s whole demeanour stood for a very traditional way of defining
the overall value of the production and consumption of knowledge and therefore also his own
role as a “scientist”. This was reflected in the way he handled the collections he was entrusted
with at Teylers.
In this sense - as arguably in many others - van Breda was a worthy successor to van Marum.
The two could be described as kindred spirits. Indeed, they had been friends during van
Marum’s lifetime. A rare case of van Breda expressing his feelings in an almost melancholy
manner shortly after the death of his first wife in 1834 can be found in a letter of his to van
Marum.157 Incidentally, she had been a granddaughter of van Marum’s mentor Petrus
Camper.158
But van Breda and van Marum had a lot to talk about anyway. Both were trained as doctors -
van Breda attended university in Leiden - but displayed an even keener interest in the natural
sciences. Van Breda was in contact with many of the same researchers van Marum had known
before him. Shortly before completing his studies in 1811 for instance, van Breda went on a
journey through Germany, visiting many prominent scientific collections and researchers,
such as Blumenbach.159 In 1812 he and two of his friends spent many months in Paris (they
may have remained there until 1813), watching and learning from great names such as Thouin
or Cuvier. The latter they sought out shortly after arriving in the French capital and van
Breda’s diary reveals how they found the eminent researcher “in a filthy short coat engaged in
the dissection of a Lizard or a Crocodile”.160 Recall that Cuvier had visited van Marum at
57 A. S. H. Breure, “Biografie,” in Leven en werken van J.G.S. van Breda (1788-1867), ed. A.S.H. Breure and
J.G. de Bruijn (Haarlem: H.D. Tjeenk Willink, 1979), 15.
158 Ibid., 13.
159 On a summary o f these journeys see: A. S. H. Breure and J. G. de Bruijn, Leven en werken van J.G.S. van
Breda (1788-1867) (Haarlem: H.D. Tjeenk Willink, 1979), 59-75.
160 “in een smerig jasje met de ontleding van een Hagedis o f Crocodii bezig”; as quoted in: Ibid., 67.
Teylers just two years earlier and they had discussed the classification of the mosasaur in the
collection.
In 1816 Sebald Justinus Brugmans ensured that van Breda was appointed professor of botany,
chemistry and pharmaceutics at the Athenaeum in Franeker, about 80km west of Groningen.
It was here that he got to know his first wife. They married in 1821, shortly before van Breda
took up a more prestigious professorship in botany, zoology and comparative anatomy at the
University of Ghent. In 1830, however, he saw himself forced to leave - almost fle e s from
the city following the Belgian secession. Along with many of his colleagues he found
“refuge” as a professor by special appointment at his alma mater in Leiden. In 1835 he was
appointed to the chair in geology and botany.
By this time he had established a reputation for himself as one of the finest minds in Dutch
science, judging at least by the company he kept. He had been elected a member of the Royal
Institute - the later Royal Academy - in 1827. 1 A fellow professor of his in Ghent was
Thorbecke, who saw himself forced to move to Leiden in 1830 too - not unlikely, this was a
key event in the lawyer’s life that shaped his political outlook and his determination to push
through reform in 1848. Either way, some degree of trust appears to have existed between van
Breda and his colleague from the faculty of law, because when Thorbecke initiated a complete
reorganisation of the Royal Institute in 1851 - in the process of which it was dissolved and reestablished
as the Royal Academy - van Breda was one of the two members who advised
Thorbecke on how to revise the Academy’s structure.162 (The other was Gerrit Simons.)
By this time van Breda had taken on two other prestigious functions: he had not only
succeeded van Marum as director of Teylers Museum in 1839 (after a lengthy squabble with
the trustees on the exact terms of his contract and whether he was able to retain his chair in
Leiden) but also as secretary of the Holland Society and director of its natural history
cabinet.163 Particularly his position as secretary would only have added extra clout to the
advice he gave Thorbecke on the Royal Academy Simuch as van Marum’s advice had been
sought by Louis Napoleon when he established the Royal Institute some decades before.
At the same time, however, by the middle of the 19l century van Breda’s star was beginning
to wane. By the end of his career he was becoming something of an unloved dinosaur
amongst Dutch scientists. Perhaps his behaviour as he got older had something to do with the
fact that his life was marred by personal tragedy - his second wife died young, too, and four
of his six children did not reach adulthood;1 4 but two disputes at the Royal Academy go a
long way towards explaining how van Breda lost much of his credibility and, perhaps even
more importantly, his colleagues’ goodwill later in life.
1 Carel J. Matthes, “Levensberigt J.G.S. van Breda,” in Jaarboek van de Koninklijke Akademie van
Wetenschappen (Amsterdam: C.G. van der Post, 1867), 29.
1 2 Berkel, De Stem van de Wetenschap: Geschiedenis van de Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van
Wetenschappen, 1:285.
163 For a contextualization and assessment o f van Breda’s work at the Holland Society see: Bert Theunissen,
“Wetenschapsbeelden en de Hollandsche Maatschappij,” in Geleerden en leken: de wereld van de Hollandsche
Maatschappij der Wetenschappen, 1840-1880 (Haarlem: Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen, 2002),
33-46.
164 Breure, “Biografie,” 14.