-1.jpg) Wereldmuseum in 2024 | |
  Location of the museum in Amsterdam | |
Former name |
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|---|---|
| Established | 1864 (1864) |
| Location | Linnaeusstraat 2,Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| Coordinates | 52°21′46″N4°55′21″E / 52.362692°N 4.922517°E /52.362692; 4.922517 |
| Type | Anthropological museum |
| Collection size | 340,000 objects and photographs |
| Visitors | 317.572 visitors (2022) |
| Founder | Frederick van Eeden |
| Director | Wayne Modest & Marieke van Bommel |
| Public transit access | Alexanderplein GVB tram lines 1, 3, 14, 19 |
| Website | [1] |
TheWereldmuseum Amsterdam (previously known asTropenmuseum (English:Museum of the Tropics) between 1950 and 2023) is anethnographicmuseum with its headquarters inAmsterdam,Netherlands. It was originally founded inHaarlem,Netherlands in 1864 under the nameKoloniaal Museum (English:Colonial Museum) and later renamedTropenmuseum (English:Museum of the Tropics).[1]
The Wereldmuseum is one of the largest museums in Amsterdam. It has a permanent exhibition of part of its collection and hosts temporary exhibitions, including contemporary, modern and traditional visual arts and photographic works. The museum is part of theNationaal Museum van Wereldculturen (Museum of World Cultures), a combination of three ethnographic museums in the Netherlands.[1]
Frederick van Eeden, father of the writerFrederik van Eeden, and secretary of theMaatschappij ter bevordering van Nijverheid (English:Society for the Promotion of Industry) established theKoloniaal Museum (English:Colonial Museum) inHaarlem in 1864,[1] and opened the museum to the public in 1871.[1] The museum was founded in order to show Dutch overseas possessions, and the inhabitants of these foreign countries, such asIndonesia. In 1871 the institute began research to increase profits made off the colonies. This included attempting to develop improved means of producing coffee beans,rotan and paraffin. The museum came under the influence ofethnologists, who added information on the economy, manners, and customs of the inhabitants. In 1926, they inaugurated the current building in East Amsterdam. At the time, they had 30,000 objects, and a sizable collection of photographs.[1]
Following theindependence of Indonesia in 1945, the scope of the museum changed from just the colonial possessions of the Netherlands, to that of many undeveloped colonial states inSouth America,Africa, andAsia. In the 1960s and 1970s the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs encouraged the museum to expand its scope to more social issues such aspoverty andhunger. In the early 1970s a new wing for children was added. This wing is now called Tropenmuseum Junior.[1]
Until March 2014 the museum was owned and operated by theRoyal Tropical Institute, a foundation that sponsored the study of tropical cultures around the world. The museum had 317.572 visitors in 2022.[2]
The original building, officially opened in 1926, was designed by Johannes Jacobus van Nieukerken and Marie Adrianus van Nieukerken. It was richly decorated for the time, and took 11 years to build due toWorld War I and variouslabor strikes.[1] All of the artwork in the building was created in the first half of the 20th century. In 2003, the museum was listed as a historical building in Amsterdam.[1]
Until the merger in 2014, the museum collection contained 175,000 objects, 155,000 photographs and 10,000 miscellaneous drawings, paintings, and documents.[3] It inherited 15,000 of these from theEthnographisch Museum Artis. These objects are split up into many collections. The museum houses collections for many geographical areas such asSoutheast Asia,South Asia,West Asia,North Africa,Sub-Saharan Africa,Latin America and theCaribbean. They also have several collections in storage that fall outside of their scope. These include collections forChina,Japan,Korea, andEurope.
The photography collection consists mainly of historical photographs of the former Dutch Colonies from 1855 to 1940. In the period 2009-2015 the Tropemmuseum released 50,000 photographs under aCreative Commons licence to theWikimedia Commons.[4][5]
A theatric collection is housed at the Wereldmuseum Amsterdam as well. The collection houses 5,500musical instruments as well as various other theatrical objects such as masks and puppets. It also features 21,000 textile artifacts, a majority of which are from Indonesia. Tropenmuseum Junior is a sub-museum. It features interactive exhibits, and draws 30,000 children a year.[1]
