The Western world has been sceptical and critical about alternative medicine for centuries. In Europe’s early 15th century, witches were burned at the stake, because people believed that they befriended the devil. Nowadays, modern witches obviously do not get burned anymore, but still many people look down on witchcraft and other alternative medicine methods. However, […]
‘Helende krachten,’ a 2-faced exhibition
‘Mysterious’, ‘exotic’ and ‘supernatural’ would be the first words that I would think about when confronted with the subject of alternative healing methods. This vision on alternative healing is nowadays mostly developed through watching movies or television series in which shamanism or voodoo are used to explain the unexplainable. In many occasions these films and […]
Reviving the 20th century Anatomical Museum
Museum Vrolik closed its doors in 2011 to give its interior a ‘facelift’, as the Dutch Journal of Medicine calls it. The museum started as a private collection of anatomical preparations in the 19th century by Gerard Vrolik and his son Willem. At the time, the collection was only to be seen by a very […]
Powerful Herbs and Magical Amulets: the Healing Power of Alternative Medicine
With burn-outs being occupational disease number one and depression rates rising at all ages, people seem to be searching for something different then western medicine to solve their health problems. Some people seem to replace typical western medication like antidepressants, for alternative medicine like St. John’s wort, an herb that that has risen in popularity […]
Plants as medical objects at Hortus in Leiden
Museums about health and medicine can be found in all shapes and forms, and traditional museums are not the only places where people can find information about the history of medicine. For this blogpost about medical museums and exhibits about health and medicine in Dutch museums, I have decided to visit the Hortus Botanicus in Leiden. […]
The danger of putting a collections collector in the forefront of your exhibition
The Universiteitsmuseum in Utrecht holds the historical scientific collections of the Utrecht University. It is closely linked to the towns university, by preserving its former collections of biological, medical, historical and other artifacts which were used for educational and research purposes, consisting of over 60.000 objects. Parts of these collections are being displayed in the […]
Know your history to understand today
Talking about slavery is becoming a more important topic in the Netherlands. Museums are taking part in this conversation by talking about the role the Dutch played and museums become aware of their role in educating society. An example is the exhibition ‘Heden van het Slavernijverleden’ (‘Afterlives of Slavery’) in the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam. On […]
Funeral museum Tot Zover is all but dead and buried
How do we deal with death? That is what it is all about at the Tot Zover museum located at ‘De Nieuwe Ooster’ graveyard in Amsterdam. The Funeral museum Tot Zover is celebrated because of its very unique concept and location. To wit, the museum houses itself in the former residence of the graveyard director/undertaker. […]
The Cultural Value of Mental Health Exhibitions
When you enter the term psychiatric museum into your google search bar you will come across images of cages, restraint jackets and shackles. Psychiatric museums are often associated with the history of their gruesome methods of treatment and therapy. People are inclined to look negatively at the material culture of psychiatric exhibitions. Nowadays we can’t […]
A Taste of the Future
‘We shall escape the absurdity of growing a whole chicken in order to eat the breast or wing. By growing these parts separately under a suitable medium’ – Winston Churchill (1931). These words are greatly presented in the ‘Future Foods’ exhibition in the NEMO Science Museum in collaboration with Next Nature Network. This exhibition shows […]