Our generation has the last active memory of the normalization of Zwarte Piet. I remember growing up and being completely oblivious to the historically racist character that Zwarte Piet portrayed. Zwarte Piet was an essential part of Sinterklaas and that was all I could see as a child. Nowadays I get extremely uncomfortable when I […]
Category: Blog
Chet Baker: Remembering the Prince of Cool
On the 13th of May 1988, the “Prince of Cool”, commonly known as American jazz artist Chesney (Chet) Baker, was found dead. Fallen from the window of his second-floor hotel room in the Prins Hendrik Hotel in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The then 58-year-old’s bloodstream revealed traces of heroin and cocaine. To commemorate the musical innovator, […]
Jaipur Foot: Moving the Boundaries of Medicine
Western medicine and science has been responsible for the saving and improving the lives of millions of people all around the world. The successes of Western medicine have led it to be viewed, at least here in the Western world, as superior to other forms of medicine and the only one to be practiced. But […]
A Hair-Raising Idea? Using Human Hair in Jewelry
What would you do if one of your loved ones died? I’m willing to guess that ‘use their hair to make a nice pair of earrings’ probably wasn’t your first thought. Many Victorians would be inclined to disagree. See that brown netting? That’s human hair, intricately braided and set and decorated with gold fittings. […]
Room for thought
In the Eerste Leliedwarsstraat in Amsterdam, you will find a very small museum dedicated to the influential Dutch writer Theo Thijssen (1879-1943). But the museum does not pay enough attention to its most precious possession: the exhibition space itself. Theo Thijssen wrote several books that became part of the Dutch national canon, with ‘Kees de […]
The Fatal Cry: Mandrakes in Medieval Medicine Book
In order to pluck this plant, you need three things: a, preferably, sick dog, a bowl of food and a leash. Tie your dog to the plant with the leash. Give your dog one last hug. Walk as far away as possible, but not too far! Your dog still needs to hear you. Then place […]
The multilayered perspective of a smashed car window
“There is disbelieve, panic. We smell smoke, we see glass lying everywhere. People hold on to each other, text, call, and stay close to each other.” Miriam El Maslouhi, December 22nd, 2019. The aftermath of what Miriam described was demolished cars and a building with broken windows. Why? On 8 November 2019, a national conference […]
Goodbye, my love: The inscribed weddingsheet of Clelia Marchi
Upon entering Pieve Santo Stefano, a tiny tucked-away village in Arezzo, one encounters Italy at its quietest. Seeing no one on the streets but a few people in front of a tiny bar and an old couple walking their dog, nothing here seems particularly tumultuous or emotionally intricate. If only visitors knew they had entered […]
The Prorace cervical cap: an object of early feminism or racial prejudice?
Going to the doctor or pharmacy to get contraceptives is a very natural thing to do today. A hundred years ago, this was not the case, as contraceptives were not widely accepted. Despite these circumstances, Marie Stopes opened the first (free) birth control clinic in London in 1921. The Mother’s Clinic gave women advice on […]
Corsets for Beer Bellies: Flatten Your “Danger Curve” With a Health Belt!
Today, influencers like the Kardashians peddle ‘waist-trainers’ and similar items that claim not only to reduce your waist, but help you lose weight or even achieve a six-pack; all while you sit at your desk. They are far from the first to recommend products like this: similar garments were advertised all over the place during the twentieth century. These descendants of the corset claimed to do much more heavy lifting than their predecessors. The corset may be one of the most famous items of clothing from western fashion history, but it is usually associated with women. What not many people know, is that men wore them too! So what did men’s corsets look like, and why does this piece of fashion history get so little mention?