Groningen. All these specimens had been brought to Haarlem - a choice of venue that goes to
show how van Breda was the one who was (as yet) calling the shots within the commission.
The collection was stored in two rooms on the ground floor of Paviljoen Welgelegen, i.e. the
same building in which the Rijksmuseum's paintings by living artists had been on public
display since 1839. The section of the building the geological collection was now stored in
had become available after King William II, who had still rented these rooms off the state,
had passed away in 1849.180 Staring was provided with living quarters in the same section of
the building.
As from 1853, the geological collection was publicly accessible on Tuesdays and Saturdays
between noon and 4pm. Tickets were available — apparently free of charge - from a certain
“Mr Werdmiiller von Elgg, at the front of the Pavilion”.181 (Werdmiiller van Elgg was
perhaps the building’s caretaker.) A small guidebook - essentially a catalogue of what was on
display — was available for visitors. A reason as to why it had been written was provided in
the introduction to this booklet:
“[W]hat use or even pleasure, could be expected from walking around in a maze of rocks and
names, in which even the trained geologist would, without assistance, find his way around
only with difficulty?” 182
As for the aim of the collection itself, according to the guidebook this was first and foremost
“so as to have together for detailed study everything that can serve to gain a correct
conception of the types of rocks, minerals and remains of animals and plants that occur in the
Netherlands; to explain the origin of the soil; to provide opportunity for further study of what
has been examined once already;” 183
Clearly, thus, it was conceived as a research and reference collection. The reason given as to
why it was open to the public was
“to make the enterprise, if possible, into a general concern of the Netherlands, a concern in
which everybody is interested who is not indifferent to the place his country occupies in the
academic world, and to which everybody is invited to contribute for his part, if he is able.”184
1 Kok, “De musea in Paviljoen Welgelegen,” 141.
“Heer Werdmiiller von Elgg, aan de voorzijde van het Paviljoen”-, De Geologie van Nederland: Handleiding
vor de bezigtigers der verzameling op het Paviljoen te Haarlem (Haarlem: A.C. Kruseman, 1853).
“[WJelk nut, o f zelfs genoegen, kon men verwachten van het rondwandelen in een doolhof van steenen en
namen, waarin zelfs de gestudeerde geoloog zieh, zonder hulp, met moeite eenen weg zoude weten te vinden?”
Ibid., 3.
“om alles voor eene naauwkeurige Studie bijeen te hebben, wat dienen kan ten einde een juist begrip te
verkrijgen van de rotssoorten, delfstoffen en overblijfsels van dieren en planten die in Nederland voorkomen; om
het ontstaan van den bodem te verklären; om gelegenheid te geven tot nader onderzoek van hetgene reeds
eenmal beschouwd is geworden;” Ibid.
“om [...] de ondememing, zoo mogelijk, te maken tot de algemeene zaak van Nederland, tot eene zaak
waarin een ieder belang stelt, wien ’t niet onverschillig is welke plaats het vaderland inneemt in de
wetenschappelijke wereld, en waarvoor een ieder uitgenoodigd wordt om, zoo hij daartoe in staat is, ook van
zijne zijde bij te dragen.” Ibid.
This was quite a far-reaching embrace of the public (note the explicit hope of garnering some
input from “amateurs” and the strong emphasis of a sense of national pride so typical of the
mid-nineteenth century) and one can safely assume that Staring carried most of the burden
this brought with it, given that he was living in the same building.
However, as far as van Breda’s attitude towards collections is concerned, the really revealing
episode occurred the year before the guidebook was published, when one of the commission’s
“correspondents”, Pieter Harting, expressed the hope that the commission’s collection should
form the core of something larger, or more specifically a “general Museum for Dutch
geology”. His somewhat longwinded letter is worth quoting at some length:
“What has been collected at excavations is of course State property, and I should therefore
like to hear from you, what I should do with it when my research is finished. However, this
doesn’t apply to what I have collected there in the past at my own expense. I am not
unwilling, however, to hand over that as well, namely if a central collection will be created,
and individual members of the committee also deposit into it what they have collected from
the soil earlier on.
In that case I will gladly follow the good example and retain nothing for myself, as a general
Museum for Dutch geology is by fa r to be preferred over a number o f private collections
[emphasis MW], What I have is not very much, but there are some important specimens
amongst it, such as, for example, all the [...] shells from the Amsterdam soil. I have also some
ground to believe, that others will be happy to hand over their special collections to such a
general Museum as well, once the example in this respect has been given by the members of
the Main Committee. They should therefore not hold it against me if, because of the
importance of the matter, I intentionally [unreadable], and request them to be so good as to
inform me of their views on this point. If they can agree with me on this most liberal view,
then I have the greatest expectations of an open invitation to bring together what is present in
many private collections, and the work could perhaps be furthered a great deal ...”185
But the Commission, led by van Breda, appears to have simply ignored this proposal. It would
have been totally against van Breda’s interests, too. Not only would a national museum of
geology in Haarlem have undermined the importance of Teylers Museum, the way Harting’s
185 “Het bij de gravingen verzamelde is natuurlijk Rijkseigendom, en ik verlang derhalve van U.Gel. te weten,
hoe ik, na afloop van mijn onderzoek, daarmede handelen moet. Dit geldt echter niet voor hetgene ik vroeger op
eigen kosten aldaar verzameld heb. Echter ben ik niet ongenegen ook dit a f te staan, wanneer er namelijk een
centrale verzameling wordt aangelegd, en ook de individuele leden der commissie daarin het uit den bodem door
hen reeds vroeger bijeen verzamelde willen deponeren. // In dit geval wil ik gaarne dit goede voorbeeld volgen
door niets voor mij zelven te behouden, daar een algemeen Museum voor Nederl. geologie verre de voorkeur
verdient boven verscheidene particulière collecties [emphasis MW]. Wat ik heb is juist niet veel, doch er
bevinden zich eenige belangrijke specimina onder, gelijk b.v. al de [...] schelpen uit den Amsterdamschen
bodem. Ook heb ik eenigen grond om te geloven, dat ook anderen hunne bijzondere verzamelingen voor zulk
een algemeen Museum gaarne zullen afstaan, wanneer eenmal daartoe het voorbeeld door de leden der
Hoofdcommissie is gegeven. Zij houden het mij derhalve ten goede, indien ik dit punt om het gewigt der zaak,
opzettelijk [;..], en hen verzoek de goedheid te hebben mij zoo mogelijk daaromtrent hunne meening mede te
deelen. Mogten zij zich met mij op dit meest libérale standpunt kunnen vereenigen, dan zoude ik mij van eene
openlijke uitnodiging, tot tezamenbrenging van het reeds in vele particulière collectiën voorhandene, veel goeds
voorspellen en zoude welligt het werk zeer bevorderd kunnen worden...”; P. Harting to Commissie,
21.07.1852, as quoted in: B re u re a n d Bruijn, Leven en werken van J.G.S. va nB r ed a (1788-1867), 286.