It’s hard to believe that there are people who still depend on technology from decades ago to stay alive. Yet, this was exactly the case for Mona Randolph, an American woman who passed away in 2019 due to the long delayed effects of polio. She was able to use a wheelchair during the day but […]
While many people might recognize her unibrow and bright color palette, most are unaware that the work of Mexican artist and activist Frida Kahlo (1910-1954) is deeply shaped by her disability. Frida’s lifelong struggle with her health eventually resulted in the amputation of her lower right leg in 1953. The prosthetic leg she used during […]
Hygiene. It’s a word that we hear a lot in these times of pandemic and worries about our health. In order to slow down the spread of COVID-19, people are more and more expected to wash their hands regularly and take care of their hygiene. Hygiene itself, according to the website of the Rijksoverheid, includes […]
Amid the Covid-19 pandemic in June 2021, an new exhibition opened in the Amsterdam Museum: ‘De Gouden Koets’. Centred around a Golden Coach, the exhibition shows this artifact of the Dutch Royal Family as its centrepiece. Six halls around the square are filled with items related to the coach wagon, which was made public after […]
Twenty-one-year-old Private Victor Spencer was the last soldier during the First World War in the New Zealand army to be executed for desertion. His death was scarcely mentioned afterwards, as the fact was a great shame to his family and country. However, the silence changed after 2000 when the Pardon for Soldiers of the Great […]
Collars are for dogs. Right? For a long time, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam thought that the collars in their collection were dog collars. However, when curators started making the Slavery exhibition, they realized that such a detailed, fragile collar was not a dog collar, but was used on enslaved human beings. The brass collar consists […]
Her forehead frowned, her eyes big and bulging, pouted lips and her hair black and stringy. She looks unkempt, worried, almost scared and wears a blue scarf around her neck. By looking at her face, inspecting every inch of it, you start to wonder whether she is doing alright; she looks panicked. You start to […]
It’s finally back in business: the pubs are open again, people are dancing in nightclubs and the drinks are flowing. In the countryside, people are eagerly awaiting the fair and the whole of the Netherlands is hoping that carnival will be back to normal. This is often accompanied by the necessary amounts of alcohol, something […]
Having sex without getting pregnant? Nowadays in the Netherlands the choice is superb. You can choose between many different contraceptives that prevent pregnancy, one of these being a 3 to 5 cm small anchor that is being placed in the uterus and will help prevent pregnancy for 5 to 10 years! It is called the […]
A detail of an ugly Christmas sweater? Nope, far from it! This piece of silk is over a thousand years old and has travelled all the way from Asia to Northern Europe. For over hundred years little attention was paid to these silk fragments, but now, through reconstruction techniques and detailed research, we can bring […]