World Museum Rotterdam by Jaco Verheul

About "World Museum Rotterdam"

by Jaco Verheul

About the artwork

The World Museum in Rotterdam is a museum about cultures past and present. It is the continuation of the Museum of Land and Ethnology and is located on the corner of Veerhaven and Willemskade. It displays more than 1,800 ethnographic objects from various cultures in Asia (including Islamic heritage), Oceania, Africa, America The museum is housed in the former clubhouse of the Royal Yacht Club. The building dates from 1851 and was opened by King Willem III in 1852. The Yacht Club received objects donated by Rotterdam shipowners, scientists and collectors, and exhibited them in its building. After the death in 1879 of Prince Hendrik, the chairman of the Yacht Club, the building was sold to the municipality of Rotterdam and in 1885 this resulted in the creation of a municipal museum: the Museum of Land and Ethnology, later Museum voor Volkenkunde. The collection of art and utensils from cultures all over the world grew more or less 'at random' with objects that Dutch missionaries, sailors, soldiers and merchants brought back from all over the world as 'trophies'. In connection with the growth of the collection, the building was extended by one floor in 1910. Under director J.W. van Nouhuys (1915-1934), who had himself been active as a researcher and expedition member on New Guinea, the collection was tackled in a scientific manner. It grew to some 110,000 prewe