separate volume of the Proceedings of Teylers Second Society.23 The final section contained a
thirty-page summary of Lavoisier’s ideas in Dutch, written by van Marum, and titled “Outline
of the Teaching of M. Lavoisier” (Schets der Leere van M. Lavoisier). In what can be seen as
typical of the incredible speed with which van Marum went to work, this proved to be the
world’s very first comprehensive, textbook-like overview of Lavoisier’s new chemistry.24
Even the Frenchman himself only completed his own - obviously far more detailed and far-
reaching — publication titled Traité élémentaire de chimie some two years later, in 1789.
5. Less isn’t More
On a different level, what is striking about van Marum’s experiments at Teylers Museum up
until this point is that they were all performed with the electrostatic generator. There is a very
simple reason for this: until 1789 the museum’s entire instrument collection effectively
consisted only of Cuthbertson’s machine and some accessories. This machine had of course
not come cheap, and it provided van Marum with plenty of opportunities in itself of
performing experimental research I but it was not as if he did not want to expand the
collection. On the contrary, much to his chagrin, the trustees pretty much refused to allocate
the museum any extra funds after 1784. This was not only the case with respect to the
instrument collection: when van Marum had exceeded the budget the trustees had granted him
for acquiring geological specimens for the museum at an auction in April 1785, he tried to sell
them “a Beautiful Piece of petrified Wood” which he had acquired for flOO,- without
checking with his superiors first, presumably arguing that it fit in well with the rest of the
collection. The offer was refused, however. And even more importantly, van Marum was
informed that the trustees “have decided [...] for the time being not to spend more money on
this Area”.25
There were a number of reasons for this tightening of the purse strings. One of these was
surely that the trustees had just lost their court case against P. Klaarenbeek, and saw
themselves forced to pay out a considerable portion of Teyler’s assets to Klaarenbeek as a
legal heir. Other reasons were the high costs incurred by the construction of the museum itself
and the construction of the new almshouse, which had only just begun. Van Marum recalled
Martinus van Marum, Eerste Vervolg der Proefneemingen met Teyler’s Electrizeer-Machine in ’t Werk
gesteld, vol. 4, Verhandelingen uitgegeven door Teyler’s Tweede Genootschap (Haarlem: J. Enschede; J. van
Walre, 1787). This has recently been translated into English and republished: Martinus van Marum, “First
Sequel to the Experiments Performed with Teyler’s Electrical Machine,” vol. 5, Martinus van Marum: Life &
Work (Leyden: Noordhoff International Publishing, 1974), 59-144.
24 Levere, “Martinus van Marum and the Introduction o f Lavoisier’s Chemistry in the Netherlands,” 188.
“een Schoon Stuk versteend Hout”; “oordeelen [...] aan deezen Tak vooreerst niet meerder tekoste te moeten
leggen”; “Directienotulen”, 29.04.1785, Haarlem, ATS, vol. 5.
later in life that he had once been told by the trustees: “[w]e have built the Museum, we have
to leave something for our Successors as well.”2
Yet by 1787 the situation had begun to change again. The almshouse, for one, was completed
in that year. Just as importantly, the political turmoil of the previous years came to an end,
albeit temporarily. The Patriot uprisings, of which Haarlem had been one of the centres and m
which many of the trustees such as van Zeebergh were heavily involved, were put down with
the help of the Prussian army, and the House of Orange had been reinstated. As a result, the
overall economic and financial situation will have stabilised a little as well. Van Marum’s
Orangist sympathies had evidently not gone completely unnoticed at this point, as he was
offered a seat on the newly formed town council of Haarlem in 1788 - whereas van Zeebergh
was ejected from his. Van Marum however had never shown any real interest in matters of
politics, and must also have been acutely aware of the fact that the issue was more than a little
sensitive. The director of Teylers Museum sent a letter to the Prince of Orange turning down
the offer.27
Van Marum later recalled that he had used this as leverage to increase the budget at his
disposal at the museum.28 Whether the trustees, and van Zeebergh in particular, were really
susceptible to their employee’s argument that he had now proven that he was devoting his all
to Teylers Museum is debatable, all the more so because first indications that the collection
could be expanded actually date from before the Prussian army’s intervention in the Dutch
Republic.29 But, be that as it may, the fact of the matter is that by the end of 1788 van Marum
was indeed being provided with money to expand the collections. And in no small amounts,
either, as was soon going to transpire.
6. And then there was More
This of course had a profound effect on the museum. It was particularly relevant in two ways.
Firstly, the instrument collection was expanded; secondly, the museum itself expanded when
a separate laboratory was constructed for van Marum in 1790.
The reason it is worth focusing on these two developments in particular is because they bear
great relevance both to the history of the museum as a whole, and the status of the instrument
collection therein. More specifically, one could say the instrument collection itself was not so
much expanded as actually only established at this point - it had, after all, essentially only
26 “Wii hebben het Museum gebouwd, wij moeten ook wat voor onze Successeuren overlaten” Martinus van
Marum: “De Geschiedenis van de oprigting van Teyler’s Museum”, 1823-1833, Haarlem, NHA, Archtef van
Marum, vol. 529, nr. 9, fol. 26. . , 7(() ■».,
27 W. W. Mijnhardt, Tot heil van ’t menschdom: culturele genootschappen in Nederland,
(Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1988), 310-311. MU.
28 Martinus van Marum: “De Geschiedenis van de oprigting van Teyler’s Museum , 1823-1833, Haarlem, NHA,
Archief van Marum, vol. 529, nr. 9, fol. 27.
29 “Notulen Tweede Genootschap”, 02.03.1787, Haarlem, ATS, vol. 1382.