taking up the post of curator. In fact, he was to perform this task as quickly as possible. As the
second paragraph of his contract, as drawn up in 1878, read:
“The Curator shall, after taking up his duties, as soon as possible make a new inventory of the
objects that are present in the Physics Cabinet, — and furthermore occupy himself with
preparing from this inventory a Systematically-ordered Catalogue, to which he shall regularly
add the new objects with which the Cabinet will be enriched in the future.”97
Van der Ven had completed this task in 1882.98 Essentially, the catalogue he produced was
identical with an inventory. It was basically just a list of all instruments in the Foundation’s
possession, ordered by the area of physics they belonged to and with a succinct description.
By 1898, this catalogue was in need of an update. Remarkably, however, van der Ven not
only updated the list of instruments, but added a 22-page “guide” to the collections. Van der
Ven left no doubt that in doing so he hoped to render the collections understandable and
useful not just for the experts who came to the museum in search of specific apparatus (and
who would know how to use the catalogue that formed the second part of the booklet), but
also to the general public. As he wrote in the introductory remarks to the “guide”:
“This “Guide” should be viewed mainly as an attempt to make a visit to Teylers’ unique
collection of scientific instruments more fruitful for laypeople in the area of physics and
therefore more attractive.”99
He subsequently implied that he had found himself in a bit of a dilemma, because he could of
course not assume that a lay audience would be familiar with the laws of physics, which made
it impossible to describe the instruments on display in any appropriate way within the limited
space of the guidebook. As he put it: “With one of our sacred writers we might say that even
the whole world could not contain the books that could comprise such a description.” 100 The
result was inevitable: “Much of what is available must be passed over in silence.”101
But van der Ven did have a - at least partial - solution to this problem. As he stated a little
circuitously:
“But despite this there is so much in the collection that, even if it is only because of its
historical value, can elicit the interest of those too who are unfamiliar with the physical
97 “De Conservator zal na de aanvaarding zijner betrekking zoo spoedig mogelijk een volledigen inventaris
opmaken van de voorwerpen, die in het Physisch Kabinet aanwezig zijn, - en voorts zieh bezighouden met
daarvan te vervaardigen een Systematisch-geordenden Cataloaus. dien hij daarna geregeld zal aanvullen met de
nieuwe voorwerpen, waarmede het Kabinet in het vervolg verrijkt zal worden.” “Instructie voor den te benoemen
Conservator van het Physisch Kabinet van Teylers Stichting”, 05.07.1878, Haarlem, ATS, vol. 106.
Catalogus van de Physische Instrumenten, Teylers Museum (Haarlem: De Erven Loosjes, 1882). Van der Ven
had presented the manuscript o f his catalogue to the trustees in September 1882: “Directienotulen”, 01.09.1882,
Haarlem, ATS, vol. 10.
99 “Men zie in dezen “Gids” hoofdzakelijk een poging, om een bezoek aan Teylers’ eenige verzameling van
natuurkundige instrumenten voor leeken op natuurkundig gebied meer vruchtbaar te maken en daardoor meer
aantrekkelijk.” Elisa van der Ven, Gids door de Verzameling Physische Instrumenten in Teyler’s Museum
(Haarlem: De Erven Loosjes, 1898), iii.
“[W]ij [zouden] met een onzer gewijde schrijvers kunnen zeggen, dat de gansche wereld de boeken niet zou
kunnen omvatten, waarin zoodanige beschrijving zou moeten worden opgenomen.” Ibid.
1 1 “Veel van wat voorhanden is moet dan ook met stilzwijgen worden voorbijgegaan.” Ibid.
sciences, so that even just pointing them out in a better fashion did not seem like futile work
to me.”102
This clearly implies that van der Ven had discovered that history provided an angle from
which he could approach the collection without losing the lay public’s interest, because
history formed a common denominator for all visitors, i.e. something every visitor could
relate to, and which was more easily explicable than the science behind the machines.
Throughout the guidebook Van der Ven accordingly repeatedly elaborated on various items’
historical significance, both for research performed in Haarlem and with regards to science as
a whole. And the visitor’s sense of history would have been augmented by van der Ven’s
decision to store most instruments from before 1850 in the Oval Room, and all later devices in
the new building. With the explanations from the guidebook, history became a little more
tangible in the Oval Room.
To clad this in the phrases used above, the confluence of the two strands of history that
determined the development of Teylers Museum throughout the 19th century not only resulted
in popular guidebooks — both Winkler’s and, a decade later, van der Ven’s - but also in the
historical and therefore cultural value of the scientific instruments being emphasised within
the museum premises.
At this point it also becomes significant that a separate laboratory had been constructed for
van der Ven at the same time the new annex to the museum was being built. Very little is
known about the construction as well as the usage of this laboratory. The few snippets of
information available include an entry from the minutes of a meeting of the trustees held in
January 1884, which reads:
“It is decided, in accordance the proposal by the Curator of the Physics cabinet, Mr E. van der
Ven, to build a new chemical and physical Laboratory, very close to the existing Museum and
Cabinet Building. - The costs of the plan are estimated at over f 6000,-.” 1
Some weeks later, the company Mertens and Son is tasked with building this laboratory for
f6120,-. That such a large amount of money was made available for research facilities is all
the more surprising if one considers van der Ven’s subsequent relative lack of output.
The crucial point, however, is that this laboratory was off limits to the general public. This in
turn underscores just how important it was thatE- through historical contingencies B large
parts of the instrument collection were stored in the museum building, i.e. the Oval Room and
what came to be referred to as the Instrument Hall in the new annex. After all, if all the
instruments had been stored in the laboratory, which was only accessible to experts, van der
102 “Maar niettegenstaande dat is er in de verzameling zoveel dat, al was het alleen om zijne historische waarde,
de belangstelling, ook van in natuurkundige wetenschappen onbedrevenen, tot zieh kan trekken, dat eene nadere
aanwijzing daarvan alleen mij geen nutteloos werk toescheen.” Ibid.
103 “Wordt besloten, overeenkomstig het voorstel van den Conservator van het Physisch Kabinet, Dhr E. van der
Ven, een nieuw chemisch & physisch Laboratorium te doen bouwen, in de onmiddelijke nabijheid van het
bestaande Museum- en Kabinets-gebouw. - De kosten daarvan zijn op ruim f6000,- begroot.” “Directienotulen”,
24.01.1884, Haarlem, ATS, vol. 11.
104 “Directienotulen”, 29.02.1884, Haarlem, ATS, vol. 11.