consisted of the electrostatic generator before, even if the trustees had given van Marum
permission to build an entire collection of scientific instruments as early as 1784. But it was
only after 1788 that van Marum could start acquiring instruments systematically. In fact many
of the instruments, that are still considered the most prominent of the museum’s collection,
were all acquired within the space of just a few years.
Whereas building this collection had an immediate impact on the museum, the real
significance of the second development - the establishment of separate laboratory premises -
lies more in the long term. More to the point, this can be seen as a first step towards “taking
the science out of Teylers Museum”. After van Marum had exhausted the electrostatic
generator’s potential for new discoveries and stopped performing experiments with it in the
Oval Room, and after he had been provided with the more suitable premises of a laboratory to
conduct further experiments with other instruments, the Oval Room ceased to function as a
place of experimental research. This is not to say that it no longer functioned as a place of
research S o n the contrary, the fossil collection it housed remained the object of detailed and
systematic study which could only be performed in the Oval Room itself at least until new
premises were built to accommodate the geological collections in 1885; but the Oval Room
ceased to function as the kind of premise where sparks could fly or gaseous mixtures
explode.30 This was all the more the case after electrostatic generators in general had been
rendered obsolete by the discovery of the Voltaic pile at the start of the 19* century.
Some caution and attention to detail is called for here. Van Marum had already performed
experiments outside the museum long before 1788. Two years before the Foundation
constructed its own laboratory, van Mamm performed a series of experiments through which
he sought to corroborate Lavoisier’s theories - although these experiments were supported
financially by the Teyler Foundation, van Marum conducted them “in my own residence [i.e.
on the Holland Society’s premises], as the requisite facilities were lacking at the time at
Teylers Foundation”.31 And even before Teylers Museum had been built, van Mamm had
conducted chemistry experiments as part of his prize competition essay on phlogisticated and
dephlogisticated air. Presumably he would have done so at the Holland Society’s premises as
well.
So, strictly speaking, the Oval Room never functioned as a “laboratory”, in that it was only
used for experiments that were connected with the electrostatic generator, and a distinction
between the museum and other laboratory premises had already been in place before the
addition of a laboratory funded by the Teyler Foundation in 1790. However the crucial point -
and the one that was to become especially significant in the long term - is that the Teyler
Foundation’s organisational structure now included both a museum and a laboratory. As
“museums” were increasingly associated with the public display of works of fine art over the
course of the nineteenth century, and the exact sciences simultaneously became increasingly
30 On sparks and explosions see: Levere, “Martinus van Marum and the Introduction o f Lavoisier’s Chemistry in
the Netherlands,” 177-181.
31 “bij mijne woning, daar hiertoe, bij Teijlers Stichting, toen nog de gelegenheid ontbrak”; Martinus van
Marum: “De Geschiedenis van de oprigting van Teyler’s Museum”, 1823-1833, Haarlem, NHA, Archief van
Marum, vol. 529, nr. 9, fol. 36. On the Teyler Foundation’s financial support (which amounted to f500,-) see:
“Directienotulen”, 31.10.1788, Haarlem, ATS, vol. 5.
specialised and dependent on precise measurement, this distinction became ever more
pronounced.
Comparatively little is known about the original laboratory itself. One reason so little
information on it has been preserved is probably that it was considered more of a workshop.
The relative disdain for the laboratory mirrors the low esteem in which practical labour and
research were held in comparison to the scholarly exercise of the mind - as represented by the
far more magnificent Oval Room. It is not even clear where exactly the laboratory was
installed. It appears to have been situated in one of the houses adjacent to the Foundation
House. In his recollections, van Marum wrote that in 1790 “van aangrenzende woningen, een
Chemisch Laboratorium, zoo als ik het verlangde, is ingerigt geworden”.32 An announcement
from the time of the laboratory’s establishment itself, published in the literary journal
Algemeene Konst en Letterbode in 1791, provides just a little more detail, and is worth
quoting at some length. It says that
“recently, as a result of joining and renovating two adjacent rooms, a spacious and well-
appointed Laboratory has been attached to the Foundation House, equipped with the requisite
instruments for Physical and Chemical Experiments and Investigations: where our Dr. van
Marum, well-known in the world of learning, to whom the directorship of the Physical and
Natural History Cabinets as well as that of the Library of Teylers Museum [...] has been
entrusted since 1784, is now in a position to carry out, for the advancement of our knowledge
of nature, in particular such Physical investigations as are too expensive or too laborious for
most Physicists [Natuurkundigen\ to do at their own expense.”
So the laboratory premises evidently consisted of two rooms or maybe even apartments (the
Dutch word woning, translated above as “room”, was used ambiguously) that had been
conjoined and refurbished.
It is interesting to note that in 1790 there is talk of a “Physical and Chemical Experiments and
Investigations”, whereas by about 1820, when van Marum penned his recollections, he only
referred to the laboratory as a “Chemical Laboratory” {Chemisch Laboratorium). Even though
van Marum had certainly not lost interest in physics and used the 1788 windfall to acquire a
wide range of instruments relevant to the analysis and demonstration of physical principles (as
will be shown below), one can safely assume that van Marum’s primary goal in having the
laboratory established was the pursuit of chemical knowledge. Chemistry, after all, was his
most recent and foremost interest during this period; What’s more, the term laboratory was
32 Martinus van Marum: “De Geschiedenis van de oprigting van Teyler’s Museum”, 1823-1833, Haarlem, NHA,
Archief van Marum, vol. 529, nr. 9, fol. 37-38. .
33 “er is ook, kortlings, door het aantrekken en vertimmeren van twee naast elkanderen gelegene Woningen, een
ruim en ongemeen wel ingerigt Laboratorium aan het Stichtingshuis gehegt, en met den nodigen toestel tot
Physische en Chemische Proefnemingen en nasporingen voorzien geworden: waar door onze, by de geleerde
waereld zo bekende Dr. van Marum, aan wien de Directie der Physische en Naturalien Kabinetten, nevens die
der Bibliotheek van Teylers Museum [...] zedert 1784 is opgedragen, zieh thans in Staat gesteld vind, om [...] ter
bevordering der Natuurkennis, inzonderheid zodanige Physische nasporingen te doen, als voor^ e meeste
Natuurkundigen te kostbaar o f te omslagtig zy, om voor hun eigene rekening ondemomen te worden.” “Bengten,
Nederlanden: Haerlem,” Algemene Konst- en Letter-Bode, voor meer- en min- geoeffenden, December 23, 1791,
204.