Not a man of moderation however, van Marum did not wait long before he presented the
trustees with a suggestion as to what they could acquire for “their” instrument collection: an
electrostatic generator. More to the point, he was not just suggesting they buy any
electrostatic generator, but that they pay for the construction of “an Electrostatic Generator of
exceptional size”. Amazingly, after having cleared up “some difficulties” - details as to what
these were are not provided - the trustees agreed to pay a total of f2500,- for the construction
of such a generator on April 11th 1784.145 Within a month, van Marum presented his superiors
with detailed specifications of the machine that the instrument maker John Cuthbertson and he
had drawn up together. Although its completion was originally scheduled for February 1784,
it was only installed in the Oval Room in December. In the months after that, van Marum
built both the Foundation’s as well as his own reputation around this device, and for decades
to come it constituted Teylers Museum’s pièce de résistance.
Meanwhile, the Foundation had also started building a library. Again, van Marum
spearheaded these efforts. It is obvious from the Society’s early suggestion that the cupboards
on the Oval Room’s gallery be used as bookshelves that there was never any doubt that books
were to constitute one of the focal points of the Foundation’s collecting activities. The initial
idea of the Oval Room functioning as a “bookhall” had obviously not been discarded in the
two years between Bamaart’s death and the near-completion of the Oval Room. Yet even
though it was evidently implicitly clear to all involved that the Oval Room was to function in
large part as a library, it took over a year for some sort of acquisition policy to be formulated.
It seems the trustees waited until an end to the interior furbishing of the Oval Room was in
sight. The minutes of the Second Society’s meetings states how in November 1783 they felt
that “the erection of the Museum behind this Foundation Flouse had now progressed so far,
that there was reason to be sure that, next year, it would be entirely completed and
finished”.14 With van Marum acting as intermediary, the trustees then once again turned to
the Societies, asking
“that the Societies will each reflect and then, communicating with each other, will conceive a
plan to be handed over to the Directors for the creation of a Library and a specification of
those Books that the Members of the Societies would deem to be of the greatest use for this
Foundation”. 7
Minutes detailing the Theological Society’s response to this have not been preserved, but the
Second Society recorded that
145 “eene Electriseer Machine van buitengemene Grootte”; “eenige zwarigheden”; “Directienotulen”, 11.04.1784,
Haarlem, ATS, vol. 5. The corresponding minutes o f the Second Society’s meetings were either never drawn up
or have not been preserved.
“de bouw van ‘t Museum achter dit Fundatie-Huis thans zoo verre was gevorderd, dat men rede hadde voor
zeker te stellen, d a t ’t zelve i n ’t naast volgende Jaar geheel volbouwd en afgemaakt zouwde zijn”; “Notulen
Tweede Genootschap”, 07.11.1783, Haarlem, ATS, vol. 1382.
“dat de Collegien eerst elk in den haaren hunne gedachten wilden laaten gaan, en, vervolgens met onderlinge
communicatie, een plan beraamen, om aan Hun Heeren Directeuren over te geeven tot het formeeren van eene
Bibliotheek, en eene opgave van die Boeken, welken de Leden der Collegien zouwden oordeelen van de grootste
nuttigheid voor deeze Stichting te weezen”; Ibid.
“it [was] understood unanimously that the place for the storage of books should not be
overloaded, and that it was therefore impossible to think of a very extensive collection of
everything belonging to each of the sciences dealt with here, but that only the most select
books and works, which are of a great value and therefore rarely to be encountered in private
collections, would be most suitable to be listed and recommended for the use of this
Foundation.”
It was probably van Oosten de Bruijn who voiced the opinion “that for the Library of this
Foundation most useful and most requisite is a fine collection of the editions of the Greek and
Roman authors”.148 This motion was accepted, but not before it had also been decided that the
collection’s focal point with regard to the study of nature was to be geology, and books on
fossils in particular.
It is worth noting that the idea was to acquire books that were too expensive to be purchased
by private individuals, much in the same way that van Marum had suggested this for scientific
instruments. No further explanation is provided as to why this point was emphasized. In both
cases it might well have constituted a noble attempt at providing some sort of altruistic service
to the scholarly community at large, but with the books as with the instruments it is equally
likely that this suggestion was van Marum’s alone, and that he did not have private
individuals as much as one single individual in mind, i.e. himself. Be that as it may, the
statement on the acquisition of books in particular - because it was made in 1783, rather than
at a later point in time like the statement on the instruments - can be seen as heralding the
significant role the Teyler Foundation’s private collections were to play in the public realm.
So, as was summarized in the minutes, it was decided
“that, as far as the Study of Nature [Physical was concerned, the very wide field of Natural
History would not be entered, as this could not be treated in its entirety in this foundation, and
that only the subdivisional branch of fossils would be taken into consideration, to which
purpose a respectable collection of minerals had already been acquired by this foundation.”149
Indeed, talk of a “respectable collection” was .not unjustified, as van Marum had not only been
busy designing the electrostatic generator and buying books, but in the meantime was
constantly busy expanding the Foundation’s geological collections.
The trustees had not only been pleased with his acquisitions at the auction of van der
Meulen’s collection, but also agreed to focus exclusively on geological specimens in their
efforts to build a collection, leaving all other branches of natural history to the Holland
“[was] eenpariglijk begrepen, dat de plaats tot berging van de boeken geschikt, zooveel mooglijk diende
gemenageerd te worden, en dat er dus niet te denken was aan eene zeer uitgebreide verzameling van allés, wat
tot elke weetenschap, hier getracteerd wordende, behoorde, maar dat d’uitgezochtste boeken, en werken, die van
hoogen prijs zijn, en, daarom, selden in particulière verzamelingen worden aangetroffen, alleen en meest
geschikt waren om ten gebruike van deeze Stichting te worden opgegeeven en aangepreezen.”; “dat voor de
Bibliotheek van deeze Stichting allernuttigst en noodigst is eene schoone verzameling van de beste uitgaaven der
Griekse en Romeinse Schrijveren” ; Ibid.
149 “dat, zoo veel betreft de Phvsica. niet zouwde worden getreeden i n ’t zeer ruime veld der Historia Naturalis.
alzoo die, in haare uitgebreidheid [fol. 92 begins] bij deeze fondatie niet stond te worden getracteerd maar dat
daaruit alleen de tak der fossilia in aanmerking zouwde dienen genomen te worden, waartoe reeds een
aanzienlijke verzameling van mein-stoffen bij deeze fondatie was geacquireerd.” Ibid.