The owl was a symbol in Dutch gay nightlife in a large part of the 20th century. The word ‘owl’ was also a codeword for heterosexuals or police, and was used throughout the country. Due to this double meaning, the owl became a common piece of decoration in meeting places for homosexuals, mainly in gay […]
Author: Public History Student
Kissing babies: Saintly or sexual?
Mauritshuis, The Hague in long-term loan to museum Catharijneconvent, Utrecht. ‘The Infants Christ and Saint John the Baptist Embracing and Kissing’ (c. 1530) Joos van Cleve (c. 1485 – 1540-41) Oil on oak, 39 × 58 cm In the sixteenth century the Antwerp painter Joos van Cleve and his workshop pupils made ten versions of […]
The controversial afterlife of therapeutic castration in The Netherlands, 1938-1968
Between 1938 and 1968 around 400 sex offenders underwent therapeutic castration as part of their treatment after being put at the discretion of government. Even though this procedure was only performed on a voluntary basis, statistics show that mostly people with a weak social position, mentally handicapped people and homosexual men, were castrated. This raises […]
Mies and Gesina: A Public Secret
by Robin Hendriks and Marlinde Venema A newspaper correction might seem like one of the most mundane things imaginable, but this correction provides insight into one particular relationship: that between Gesina van der Molen and Mies Nolte. Lives and careers Gesina (1892-1978) and Mies (1899-1986) met in the late 1920s, started living together in 1930, […]
Raise your Fist!
Wooden Torso. Location: Club Church. Photo courtesy: Kevin Schram. Just a wooden torso you would think. Just carved wood, like any other sculpture bought in Bali in Indonesia, while riding on a scooter across the island, made of local wood. Yes, just that. But the object’s journey makes it just a little more than that. Jan, a […]
Wanted! Information about warning signals in gay bars
For the ‘Queering the Collections’ project, two Public History students are looking for personal stories about warning signals used in gay bars in Amsterdam. We are specifically interested in the owl shaped lamps: when the eyes lit up, the visitors knew they had to ‘act straight’. Do you know this lamp or have you heared […]
Hello Sailor!: a real hope for mankind?
By Lisa Marie Kuiper ‘Given the right opportunity, we can generously embrace the whole diversity of human experience.’ With this positive statement in the back of her mind, dr. Jo Stanley co-curated the Hello Sailor! exhibit created by National Museums Liverpool in 2007. This lively exhibition, that turned out to be a great succes, was based […]
Complex narratives in the historic house?
By Lisa Willemaerts. Heterowhat? That was my first impression when I finished reading the article Sexuality in Heterotopia: time, space and love between women in the historic house. I found and still find the concept of heterotopia a bit confusing. I think Alison Oram tries to show how these historic houses encompass different narratives and […]
Out of the closet and into the museum
By Annabel de Ruijter – Cultural institutions often embody the public sphere, central sites where the display of sexual objects becomes a stage for debates over how and when the erotic is illicit. In “When the erotic becomes illicit. Struggles over displaying queer history at a mainstream museum”, Jill Austin et al. explore how the Chicago […]
Sex Sells
By Kevin Schram Sexuality in museums. A topic discussed in the last part of Mark Liddiards research essay ‘Changing Histories: Museums, Sexuality and the Future of the Past’ on the changes occurring in museums, concerning technologies and attitudes towards the past. He argues that questions should be asked about the identity and direction of museums […]