2. You Say Musaeum, I Say Museum
This brief summary in itself already gives an impression of how multi-layered and complex
the history of Teylers Museum is. Just a few examples can already serve to illustrate this: its
collections range from the fine arts to the natural sciences, yet are not - and never tried to be -I
encyclopaedic; it was referred to as a “museum” — or “musaeum” — from the very beginning
on, yet it only acquired a predominantly public and educational role towards the end of the
19 century; it was a very local affair, financed by a Foundation that was run by five trustees
who practically always lived in Haarlem and many of whom were direct ancestors of close
relations of Pieter Teyler’s, yet the museum immediately acquired an international reputation
and, reciprocally, was clearly influenced by international developments; the Teyler
Foundation was firmly embedded within Haarlem’s Mennonite community, yet this had very
little impact on the day-to-day running of the museum; the museum itself spawned a
laboratory which gradually turned into an institution in its own right.
This list can be extended almost at will. But with regard to all of these apparently pi g ling
aspects to the history of Teylers Museum, there is one important point to keep in mind when
studying any aspect of its history — regardless of whether it concerns the museum itself, any of
its collections, the life and work of a specific curator, or even a famous visitor. This is that the
history of Teylers Museum is best pictured as having unfolded in a force field which is
essentially shaped by two gravitational poles.
One of these is formed by the museum’s 18th century origins. As was shown, its roots lie in a
fairly liberal interpretation of Pieter Teyler’s last will and testament. Teylers Museum was
bom from Pieter Teyler’s stipulation that his private collections should serve as a repository
to the two learned societies that were to be set up in his name, and that these collections were
allowed to be expanded. Pieter Teyler had not said anything about a museum, yet a
magnificent museum was set up in his name and with his bequeathal and, therefore, always
had to be administered in accordance with Pieter Teyler’s last will and testament. Because of
this, the museum’s 18th century origins continued to shape its identity until well into the 20th
century. Bearing in mind the circumstances under which the institution was founded, as well
as the fact that the trustees of the Foundation always felt bound by the stipulations Pieter
Teyler had set out in his last will and testament in 1756, therefore helps explain many of its
idiosyncrasies. Just one obvious example is the museum’s wide range of collections: Pieter
Teyler had stipulated that his legacy was to help stimulate the arts and sciences, which was
accordingly reflected in the museum’s broad range of acquisitions.
The second gravitational pole is formed by the changing connotations of the term “museum”.
As was already mentioned above but can hardly be stressed enough, the definition of what
constituted a “museum” changed profoundly over the course of the 19th century. More to the
point, over the years museums acquired an educational role and began to offer visitors the
possibility of shoring up their credentials as members of the bourgeoisie. Anything that was
labelled a “museum” was increasingly expected to have been designed to attract and
accommodate large amounts of visitors. These changing ideas as to what constituted a
“museum” and its public role are clearly reflected in the history of Teylers Museum. The new
annex that was completed in 1885 has already been mentioned as a prominent example.
Another is the way in which Teylers Museum’s collection of fine art - the core of which was
formed by the collection of drawings formerly belonging to Christina of Sweden which was
acquired as early as 1790 - increasingly took centre stage. This was certainly the case after
the 1820s, when the decision had been taken to acquire paintings by contemporary Dutch
artists.
In summary one can say that, on the one hand, those in charge of Teylers Museum were
bound by - and adhered to - Pieter Teyler’s last will and testament and the 18th century ideals
that had shaped it, while, on the other hand and at the same time, they were in no way
immune to the new concept of what constituted a museum that began to emerge as the 19th
century progressed.
3. The Changing Status of the Scientific Instrument Collection
Key to understanding any aspect of the history of Teylers Museum is therefore to take into
account its 18* century roots and the fact that the term “museum” has a history of its own,
and cannot be treated as some sort of universal, timeless category which carried the same
connotations towards the end of the 18th century as it did a century later. It also helps to
realise that the history of the term “museum” does not necessarily coincide with the history of
the institutions or collections that had adopted this label by the end of the 19th century.
By keeping all this in mind, this study was able to show how the status of the scientific
instrument collection changed over the course of the 19th century. It clearly transpired how the
collection was increasingly appreciated for its historical significance. In a nutshell, it evolved
from a working collection that was acquired solely for the purposes of research and the
demonstration of scientific principles at public lectures, into a museum of the history of
science which vividly illustrated to the general public the experimental research that had been
performed under the auspices of the Teyler Foundation.
A combination of local contingencies and larger, international developments brought about
this change. One example of a local contingency, for instance, is that there is no indication
that it was anything other than a coincidence that the talented and ambitious van Marum was
starting to build a second career in Haarlem after having been passed over for a professorship
in Groningen, precisely at the time a huge amount of money which had been earmarked for
the arts and sciences became available after Pieter Teyler’s death. The fact that van Marum
subsequently had access to the vast resources of the Teyler Foundation as director of Teylers
Museum in turn enabled him to acquire instruments of the very highest quality for the newly
founded institution. Most importantly, this enabled him to have the world’s largest
electrostatic generator built, which in turn ensured Teylers Museum did not go unnoticed
throughout the world.