3. Pieter Teyler van der Hulst
The citizens of Haarlem appear to have had little good to say about Pieter Teyler van der
Hulst after his death in 1778, even though the only evidence about his life that has been
preserved is in stark contrast with the rumours that appear to have been spread about him. His
bad reputation probably had a lot to do with the fact that to many citizens of Haarlem the most
visible result of Teyler’s bequest, Teylers Museum, must have come as a complete surprise
when it was fist opened in 1784. The name “Teyler” they had been familiar with — the
museum’s namesake Pieter Teyler van der Hulst was one of the richest inhabitants of
Haarlem, a former Mennonite textile dealer and banker; but as visitors to the museum were
evidently told, Teyler had “throughout his entire life not expressed any particular inclination
towards the sciences”31, and was “[n]either by nature [n]or education any way allied to the
arts”32. So a museum devoted to the arts and sciences set up in his name must have been
unexpected. The quotes are taken from reports by a German and an English visitor to the
museum from 1790 and 1789 respectively.
But while one might expect Haarlem’s citizens to be grateful for the establishment of what
was soon to become an illustrious institution in their home town - whatever the institution’s
namesake’s interests - their surprise seems to have turned into a sense of disbelief and anger
for another reason: the museum was housed in a magnificent building and exquisitely
furbished, whereas at the time of its establishment many citizens of Haarlem were straggling
to make ends meet. In fact the entire Dutch Republic was deep in recession. A general sense
of malaise had spread across the Republic, with Haarlem forming no exception. One can get a
sense of how deep this sense of decline went if one realises that just a few decades before
Teyler passed away the young Mozart had made a detour to Haarlem on his tour of Europe in
order to play the town cathedral’s world famous organ, whereas by the time Teylers Museum
was built houses were being tom down in Haarlem because of the town’s sharp decline in the
number of inhabitants, brought about by the decline fortunes of the textile industry on which
Haarlem had depended for decades.33
More importantly as far as Teylers Museum and Teyler’s reputation was concerned, this
perceived contrast between the general state of the Dutch Republic’s and Haarlem’s economy
and the magnificence of the new museum was exacerbated by rumours that Teyler had been
31 ,JPeter Teyler van der Hulst, ein reicher Kaufmann, der in seinem Leben keine besondere Neigung für die
Wissenschaften geäußert hatte, vermachte sein ganzes Vermögen den Armen und der Physik.“ Georg Forster,
Ansichten vom Niederrhein, von Brabant, Flandern, Holland, England und Frankreich im April, Mai und Junius
1790, vol. 9, Georg Forsters Werke (Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1958), 325.
32 Samuel Ireland, A Picturesque Tour through Holland, Brabant, and Part o f France; Made in the Autumn o f
1789, vol. 1 (T. Egerton: London, 1796), 124.
33 On the situation in Haarlem see: W. W. Mijnhardt, Tot heil van 't menschdom: culturele genootschappen in
Nederland, 1750-1815 (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1988), 296-297. This was a time o f general economic malaise in
the Netherlands, and Haarlem was no exception. One indication o f the scale o f the general sentiments that the
Republic o f the Netherlands was on a downhill slope is provided by the establishment o f the “Oeconomische
Tak” o f the Holland Society o f Sciences, which had the explicit goal o f boosting trade and industry in the
Netherlands - even if the question which o f the two was more important became quite an issue. For an overview
o f its history see: Bierens de Haan, De Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen, 1752-1952, 160-177.
extremely tight with the purse strings, even to the point of being stingy, during his lifetime.
One story related by another visitor to the museum on another occasion for instance was that
Teyler had half a litre of milk delivered to his front door and another half litre to his back door
by different milk maids, so that he could receive two of the free spoons that were included
with each delivery.34 On the basis of what he had been told, the English visitor already quoted
above therefore came to the verdict that Teyler had been “one of the greatest misers in
Holland”.35
This, however, has to be an exaggeration, and a strong one at that. We will never know for
sure just how much truth the above statements contained, simply because very few documents
that could shed some light on Teyler’s life have been preserved, let alone any documents that
might reveal some of his personal traits; no letters to or from him for instance are known of,
just one single short poem he penned in 1737. But the sporadic evidence that has been
preserved points to a man who was by no means frugal where charitable causes were
concerned; on the contrary, he devoted both time and money to a number of institutions which
we can safely assume were close to his heart. And as if he had wanted to prove any rumours
of his frugal lifestyle wrong, the most elaborate document revealing anything about Teyler,
his 39-page last will and testament, is in effect one resounding benevolent donation in support
of “theology, the arts and sciences and the common good”37 in his home town, explicitly
including the less well-off. It bears some irony that this bequest initially had the opposite
effect to what he must have intended, probably going a long way toward cementing his
posthumous image of being overly economical, because the charitable causes he supported
were eclipsed by the establishment of the museum in his name - about which, ironically, he
had said almost nothing throughout his entire will.
So who was this man, and what exactly did he stipulate in his will? Pieter Teyler was bom on
March 25th 1702, to Maria van der Hulst and Isaac Teyler, an affluent textile trader.38 Two
younger sisters died in childhood. The family came from a line of Scottish textile traders - the
name Teyler is most likely derived from the English word “tailor”. Pieter’s grandfather
Thomas had fled his home country to avoid religious persecution, and adopted the Mennonite
faith after settling in Haarlem.
When Pieter was 19, his mother passed away, and from that moment on he carried her family
name as well, becoming Pieter Teyler van der Hulst. Nothing is known about his early years,
34 August Hermann Niemeyer, Beobachtungen a u f Reisen in und außer Deutschland, vol. 3 (Halle:
Buchhandlung des Waisenhauses, 1824), 150. This is a report o f travels undertaken in 1806.
35 Ireland, A Picturesque Tour through Holland, Brabant, and Part o f France; Made in the Autumn o f 1789,
1:24. Sophie LaRoche refers to Teyler as the “roemsüchtigefn] Geizhalse[s] Thoeler” in her report o f travels in
1788: Sophie La Roche, Tagebuch einer Reise durch Holland und England (Offenbach: Ulrich Weiß & Carl
Ludwig Brede, 1788), 108.
36 Bert Sliggers, “Niets bij zijn leven, alles na zijn dood,” in De idealen van Pieter Teyler: een erfenis uit de
Verlichting, ed. Bert Sliggers (Haarlem: Teylers Museum, 2006), 40.
37 “[B]evorderingen van Godsdienst, aanmoedigingen van kunsten en weetenschappen en het nut van ’t
algemeen”. A transcript o f Teyler’s will has been published in: Bert Sliggers, ed., De idealen van Pieter Teyler:
een erfenis uit de Verlichting (Haarlem: Teylers Museum, 2006), 192-206.
38 For the biographical information on Teyler that follows in this section see, unless otherwise indicated:
Sliggers, “Niets bij zijn leven, alles na zijn dood.”