Did you ever see cutlery made from an animal? From a real animal, not those engraved Miffy forks and spoons you got when you were younger. You have probably seen various types of cutlery in a museum: spoons, forks, knives, glasses, plates or dishes, made from gold or silver. Well, this cutlery is made from […]
Tag: Museum
Burn down a barricade, buy La Vache Qui Rit
Wait what, they turned the Laughing Cow into a sexy party girl? They sure did, look at how she is flirting with you. How else are they supposed to sell their unremarkable cheese? La Vache Qui Rit’s soft, crustless, processed white cheese is new and exciting in the 1920s, but loses its innovative nature as […]
A never ending obsession for beauty
She was once considered the most beautiful woman of the 19th century: Empress Elisabeth of Austria, better known by the wider public as ‘Sisi.’ With hair down to her feet, a waist of 50 centimeters and the tall height of 172 centimeters, she stood out amongst her contemporaries and her physique gained an immense popularity […]
Please think of the children!
Throughout history humanity has had to face numerous threats to its existence. While many of these were man-made, mother nature itself can be a cruel mistress indeed. Perhaps there is not a more common or longstanding danger to humanity as the everlasting threat of disease. While nowadays it is relatively easy to teach people how […]
Bloodletting: the cure for all diseases
In the past there were limited medical treatments available for doctors. Often the first thing a doctor would do when someone got sick was: cut open their veins. This gruesome practice called bloodletting is thousands of years old. It is also known as phlebotomy, from the Greek words phlebos (vein) and temnein (to cut). Bloodletting […]
‘My disability does not define me’: The prosthetic leg of Frida Kahlo
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 […]
A very ‘skulled’ professor
In Dutch, we say that people who have a talent to learn languages have a ‘talenknobbel’, the same goes for a talent for math: a ‘wiskundeknobbel’. These expressions literally mean that someone with one of these talents has a bump on their head that shows their special ability. Long ago, in the 18th and 19th century, […]
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. […]
Bleuland’s babies in bottles
“Quiver with horror at skeletons, organs, foetuses and body parts in formaldehyde!” This caption at the website of the Utrecht University Museum refers to the Bleuland Cabinet, home of the private collection of physician Jan Bleuland (1756-1838). Bleuland lived in an age of change. The development of instruments and technics, in which the physician himself […]
Gazing at the Rijksmuseum
I think I had to read Decoding the Visitor’s Gaze at least four times before starting to get a sense of what the chapter by Gordon Fyfe and Max Ross is actually about. And even now, I’m not sure whether I understand what their findings truly entail. But I’ll give it a go anyways. In […]