two lizards.24 They were put on display at the new premises. But it was only a far larger
donation in 1759, by another one of the Director’s, Job Baster, of his own collection, that
prompted the Society’s Directors to make funds available for the collection’s adequate
preservation, stating “that from time to time such glass bottles as are needed for the purpose
will be bought and the insects preserved in alcohol, so as to produce a respectable
collection”.25
As this “respectable collection” continued to grow, very little urgency appears to have been
attached to the construction of storage and display cases, even though an entire room had been
reserved for the collections as early as 1756. Detailed plans how to furnish this room
appropriately were drawn up in 1763 by an architect from The Hague, Pieter de Swart, but it
was only in 1771 that the Haarlem carpenter Jan de Laurier was actually paid flOOO,- for the
construction of display & storage cupboards for the Society.26 Some years previously, in
1767, another potential donor, Martinus Slabber, was even asked to hold back the specimens
he was willing to give to the Society, because of a lack of appropriate storage cupboards.27
Although Slabber also left no doubt that he was hoping to be placed in charge of the Society’s
collections and this may have been a subtle way of declining his offer (Linder was employed
one year later), reference to the storage cupboards is unlikely to have been a fabricated
excuse.
Another indication that the growing collection’s presentation was initially not considered a
pressing matter is that the mles concerning the collection’s usage were changed in 1772.
Before that, access had been restricted to members of the Society, but now Linder’s salary
was doubled to f300,- per year, on condition that he remain on for another six years, and that
he provide access to anyone interested in the collections, regardless of whether they could
provide appropriate letters of reference. Visitors were only required to enter their names in a
visitor’s book - this practice was continued until 1830 — and would have been expected to
give Linder a tip if he guided them through the collections.2
The collections continued to grow, and it was their “vast extent” that prompted the Directors
van Sijpestijn, van Brakel, and Decker to suggest van Marum be appointed as director of what
was by now referred to as “the cabinet of natural history specimens”.29 One can only
speculate as to whether his appointment had any bearing on Linder’s decision to leave before
the end of the six-year term he had agreed to serve in 1772. Either way, one of van Marum’s
first tasks as director was to oversee the collections’ transferral to new premises the Society
24 For a complete chronological list o f all donations and acquisitions see Bert Sliggers and Marijke H. Besselink,
eds., Het verdwenen museum: natuurhistorische verzamelingen 1750-1850 (Haarlem: Teylers Museum, 2002),
130-142.
25 “dat men van tijd tot tijd de glazen, zooals die daartoe vereischt worden, zal koopen en de insecten in liquor
bewaaren, om er dus een behoorlijke collectie van te maaken”. Ibid., 55. That same year, the Cabinet was given
the inevitable “unicorn’s tusk” by the Director Pieter Sannie.
26 Ibid., 105-108.
27 Ibid., 57.
28 Bierens de Haan, De Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen, 1752-1952, 251-252.
29 “grote uitgestrektheid”; “het kabinet der Naturalia”. The earliest recorded example o f this name being used is
Linder’s appointment in 1768 as “oppasser van het kabinet der Naturalia”: “Notulen 1767-1781”, 07.06.1768,
Haarlem, NHA, Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen, vol. 444, nr. 13, fol. 524.
had acquired in the Grote Houtstraat in Haarlem in 1777 - interestingly enough, with the help
of a loan from one Pieter Teyler van der Hulst, whose last will and testament was to have a
profound and in all likelihood unexpected impact on van Marum’s life after the former’s
death just one year later. Van Marum appears to have performed this logistic operation fairly
swiftly, and welcomed the first visitors to the new premises in May 1778.
In comparison with the premises at the Prinsenhof, the new building was huge. It consisted of
two sections - one at the front and one at the back, both joined by a courtyard - and
comprised three functions: the collections were stored in a total of eight rooms on the second
and third floor of the front section of the house, facing the Grote Houtstraat; the Society held
its meetings in a large meeting room on the ground floor of the building, facing the courtyard;
and finally the cabinet’s director van Mamm was allowed to live in the rest of the house rent-
free. This meant he had the entire back section as well as two rooms on the ground floor of
the front section to himself. The only condition was that he kept the premises clean and took
care “that the cabinet can, at all appropriate times, be viewed by respectable people who
desire to do so.”30 Van Marum soon came to an arrangement with his two lady servants that
they were allowed to keep all the tips from visitors if they kept the premises clean - this
would probably also have meant they granted visitors access to the collections and showed
them around.
So by 1778, the year in which Pieter Teyler van der Hulst passed away and the Teyler
Foundation was set up, van Mamm was already firmly rooted in Haarlem’s intellectual
circles. His position as town lecturer meant he could reach a large audience of interested
connoisseurs, and that he was recognised as an up and coming talent in his fields of interest,
i.e. all branches of natural philosophy. As director of the Holland Society’s cabinet, he not
only had secured an elevated position within the Society itself, but had also obtained a means
to getting in contact with all those collectors and researchers from abroad who came to see the
collections. Finally, the pay he received from the Holland Society, albeit modest, meant he
did not have to depend entirely on treating patients for a living, and could focus more on the
newest developments in natural philosophy.
By 1779, van Mamm was a member of one of the Learned Societies that were set up by the
Teyler Foundation, and by 1784 he was made the director of the Teyler Foundation’s newly
built museum. Before learning more about these events though, let us first turn to Pieter
Teyler van der Hulst himself, the details of his so far-reaching bequest, and the background
against which this bequest itself has to be seen.
30 “dat het kabinet ten allen behoorlijken tijde door fatsoenlijke Lieden, die zulks begeeren, gezien kan worden.”
“Notulen 1767-1781”, 05.08.1777, Haarlem, NHA, Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen, vol. 444, nr.
13, fol. 900.