Private Museums in the Netherlands
A Perspective
Camilla Nieman
Student Number 11230959
Public History Master Thesis
Supervisor Paul Knevel
University of Amsterdam
15 January 2018
Table of Contents
Introduction ………... 4
Selecting and Introducing the Case Studies ……… 5
Historiographical Framework: The Historical Culture ………. 9
1. Passion as Inspiration and Drive ……….... 14
The owner-curator ………. 14
Finding the passion ……… 15
The Bigger Picture ……….. 16
Motivations ………. 17
Financial Structures ……….. 21
2. Selecting Objects and Information ………. 24
Setting the Stage: History, Heritage, Memory ………. 24
The Case Studies’ Selections ……….. 26
Criticism Considered ……….. 33
Not a Solitary Activity: Collaboration through Informal Networks ………... 36
Extent of Collaboration in the Case Studies ……….. 37
Collaboration in Professional Museums ………. 41
3. Presentation ………. 44
Centrality of the Owner-Curator ………. 44
Different Organising Systems ………... 46
Informality through Playfulness ………. 49
Conclusion ……….. 52
Bibliography ……….. 55
Introduction
Oftentimes, private museums are looked upon and talked about in a negative way. In many descriptions of private museums mainly their supposed shortcomings are listed. The Wikipedia definition of private museums is telling enough. The following few phrases set the tone:
‘Unlike a public or governmental museum, a scientific monitoring and systematic documentation is not always guaranteed. Therefore, a private museum has relevance for historical research only if it complements the national collections. (…) Many, especially smaller, private museums do not meet the requirements of the International Council of Museums (ICOM). The main reason is that qualified personnel are not sufficiently available or can hardly be financed and therefore often only very limited opening times may be offered.’1
Contrarily, I have opted for a positive perspective in analysing the topic, and I have attempted to detect all the characteristics private museums actually share.
How do private museums give interpretation to the museum concept? Do these museums simply follow the approach of the major, professional museums in the Netherlands?
On the one hand, these questions are asked to find out what a museum can be, and whether something can be learnt from the bottom-up approach found in private museums. On the other hand, it will allow me to find out what types of bottom-up approaches towards the past exist nowadays in the Dutch historical culture, beside the academic one. As this research is carried out from a public history perspective, only historical museums will be taken into consideration.
Private museums have increasingly been the subject matter of academic research over the past decades, especially since the 2000s.2 An article by Tammy S. Gordon sparked my
curiosity about these specific sites, since they are part of the analysis made there. The article proposes various ideal types through which to analyse historical exhibitions. They range from academic exhibitions, to corporate, community, entrepreneurial, and vernacular ones.3 It made
me think of the different forms historical collections and their presentations can take. The museum concept itself has also been increasingly questioned in the last decades.4 Museums are
1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_museum. Accessed 2 January 2018.2 Examples of literature about private museums are: Amy K. Levin, (ed.), Defining Memory: local museums
and the construction of history in America’s changing communities (Lanham, 2006); Maja Mikula, ‘Vernacular museum: communal bonding and ritual memory transfer among displaced communities’, International Journal of Heritage Studies, 21, 8 (2015); Sarah Baker and Alison Huber, ‘Notes towards a typology of the DIY institution: Identifying do-it-yourself places of popular music preservation’, European Journal of Cultural Studies, 16, 5 (2013); Tammy S. Gordon, Private History in Public: Exhibition and the Settings of Everyday Life (Lanham, 2010).3 Tammy S. Gordon, ‘Heritage, Commerce, and Museal Display: Toward a New Typology of Historical
Exhibition in the United States’, The Public Historian, 30, 3 (2008), especially 33.4 Examples of literature discussing the museum concept are: Christina F. Kreps, Liberating Culture:
cross-cultural perspectives on museums, curation, and heritage preservation (London, 2003); Daniel J. Sherman and Irit Rogoff (eds.), Museum Culture: histories, discourses, spectacles (London, 1994); Ivan Karp, Christine Mullen Kreamer, and Steven D. Lavine (eds.), Museums and Communities – The Politics of Public Culture (Washington, 1992).now problematized as not necessarily objective, but places used to exert power by imposing specific points of view on their visitors. Museum as unquestioned institutes are no longer taken for granted. My research fits within this line of thought.
The motivation behind this research is also in line with the spirit of public history as a field of research. It sees value in studying ways in which the past figures in today’s society outside academia, rather than confining the world of history and the past solely to the academia. Much research has been carried out and is still being developed about bottom-up approaches towards the past.5 The Netherlands has been researched on this subject as well, but not yet as extensively
as, for instance, the United States or the United Kingdom.6 Since private museums are one
example of such bottom-up initiatives, I hope I can contribute to that body of knowledge with my research on five specific, Dutch case studies.
It is interesting to note that these independent institutions partly apply academic and museological rules to conserve and present various kinds of heritage. Yet sometimes, other types of methodologies are used to retrieve information for the presentation of their collections, and other types of presentational strategies are followed compared to the ones chosen by
professional museums. Ideas about the preservation of the collections can also differ greatly between those two types of museums, and even among private museums themselves.
Selecting and Introducing the Case Studies
I have selected the case studies according to a set of characteristics that essentially differentiate private museums from the major, professional museums in the Netherlands - and elsewhere in Western societies. These characteristics deviate from the definition of what a museum ought to be; a definition mostly followed internationally by the academic and museum spheres. It is the ICOM (International Council of Museums) definition:
‘A museum is a non-profit, permanent institution in the service of society and its development, open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits the tangible and intangible heritage of humanity and its environment for the purposes of education, study and enjoyment.’7
5 Certain core works about this matter are: David Lowenthal, The heritage crusade and the spoils of History
(Cambridge, 1998); Roy Rosenzweig and David Thelen, The Presence of the Past: popular uses of history in American life (New York, 1998); Raphael Samuel, Theatres of Memory (London, 1994).6 Two excellent, relatively recent works about this matter in the Netherlands are: Andries van den Broek
and Pepijn van Houwelingen, Gisteren Vandaag: Erfgoed belangstelling en erfgoedbeoefening (Den Haag, 2015). The online version consulted for this thesis differs slightly in page numbering from the printed version. And Kees Ribbens, Een Eigentijds Verleden: Alledaagse Historische Cultuur in Nederland, 1945-2000 (Hilversum, 2002).7 ‘ICOM definition of a Museum’, ICOM Website.
http://archives.icom.museum/definition.html. Accessed 2 January 2018.This definition is however subject to change regarding what types of institutions it includes. The development of the definition since its birth in 1946 underlines this fact.8 The adaptability of the
term demonstrates the difficulty in determining what a museum is.
In the Netherlands there is an independent organisation, a foundation called the Museum register, 9 that has produced its own Museum norm.10 It contains certain norms to which a
museum should comply to be registered as a recognized museum in the Netherlands by that independent body. It follows the same definition for a museum stated by the ICOM. These norms are only indicative and not actually compulsory: in the Netherlands, the museum title is an unprotected one. Everyone can use it. There are no official, governmentally controlled rules connected to how one should act when managing a museum. The private museums selected as case studies for this research are not registered, for instance. Interestingly, the term is rather subjective, with an independent body defining rules for what should constitute a valid museum, while some owners of private museums perceive of their own museum as just as valid. The museum concept can be interpreted in a multitude of ways. There is much more to the term than the typical idea associated with the major, professional museums.
I intentionally decided to analyse exactly those institutions that have named themselves museums, but do not fully fit within the ICOM definition. The main characteristics indicating a deviation from that definition, as found in all case studies, are the following:
1. All case studies have usually one, sometimes more owner-curators. This is a term used to describe the special position of someone owning a museum and being its main curator at the same time.
2. In none of the museums professional employees are to be found who are educated in museum studies or in other related academic fields, such as history, history of art, restoration, or heritage studies. None of the museums have paid employees for that matter, except for their owners, who often do not benefit financially from their museum. Sometimes volunteers assist, but even that does not occur frequently.
3. The museums are financially self-sustaining. They receive no constant funding, not from the government, nor from other sources. Moreover, they do produce profit sometimes.
4. Research is not (necessarily) part of the museum activities.
Other obvious differences compared to professional museums (complying with the ICOM definition), and closely related to the abovementioned characteristics, are: the space at their disposal; their level of popularity and the number of visitors per year - which naturally does not even closely resemble the amount registered e.g. by the Rijksmuseum.11
8
‘Development of the Museum Definition according to ICOM Statutes (2007-1946)’, ICOM Website. http://archives.icom.museum/hist_def_eng.html. Accessed 2 January 2018.9
www.museumregisternederland.nl. Accessed 2 January 2018.10
‘Museumnorm 2015’, Website Museumregister.https://www.museumregisternederland.nl/Portals/0/downloads/Museumnorm2015.pdf. Accessed 2 January 2018.
11 Among the case studies, the highest number of visitors per year was cited by the owner-curator of the
Beatles museum: around 15.000 visitors per year. This is in contrast with the DDR museum, the smallest of the case studies, that receives around 200 visitors per year. The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam instead hasFrom this point on I shall refer to the counterpart of private museums as professional museums, underlining the abovementioned differences in characteristics between the two types of museums. A main difference after all is the fact that professional museums employ people specifically educated to carry out that type of function, whereas private museums often do not have employees except for their owner-curators, who are usually not educated to carry out that position. The latter have established their museum fully on their own, without professional help. With these definitions I do not intend to judge the workings of the different types of museums, but merely point out the main, practical differences in their set-up.
The interviews I conducted with the owner-curators were roughly based on a set of eight questions, with every interview being a conversation that evolved organically, however, thus taking on various forms. The main themes focused upon in the questions are the main themes around which the analysis revolves. There is thus a degree of uniformity among the interviews, which allows a comparison of the answers. Those themes are: the initial drive behind the decision of opening a museum, the motivation the owner-curators still have today in keeping their
museum alive, the way of selecting objects for their collection, the way of selecting what and how to exhibit, the type of information used to provide context about the exhibited material, the importance of the public’s expectations, the financial structure of their museums, and the way private museums perceive themselves in relation to their major, professional counterparts. For each interview an audio recording has been made and archived, to ensure even more openness about my interpretations in case others might want to interpret the interviews for themselves. With this thesis I discuss the meaning and strength of private museums in the Netherlands, whilst remaining critical in my analysis and pointing out questionable aspects of private museums as well. I am fully aware of the fact that I can only speak about a small number of these private museums in the Netherlands, since I have analysed five case studies for this thesis. Nonetheless, I hope I can provide useful insights on this topic presenting these special examples. The following is a brief introduction of the five of them:
The Beatles museum is a relatively large museum located in Alkmaar, exhibiting all sort of objects related to the Beatles as four-headed music group and as global phenomenon. It is in the hands of Azing Moltmaker.
The DDR museum, owned by Friso de Zeeuw, is a very small museum located in Monnickendam presenting many aspects of life in the DDR.
The Ice-Skating museum is a relatively large museum located in Hindeloopen, focused on ice-skates as objects, but also on the various aspects of the ice-skating culture, especially the
‘broken a record in its opening year’ after years of renovations: 2.220.000 people visited the museum in 2013. Interview with Azing Moltmaker at the Beatles museum, 39:26-39:28; Interview with Friso de Zeeuw at the DDR museum, 34:51-34:53; ‘Openingsjaar Rijksmuseum breekt alle records’, Website Rijksmuseum, 20 December 2013. https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/nl/nu-in-het-museum/nieuws/openingsjaar-rijksmuseum-breekt-alle-records. Accessed 3 January 2018.
Elfstedentocht – the most famous ice-skating race in the Netherlands. Gauke Bootsma is its founder.
The Juttersmuseum is a relatively large museum located in Zandvoort, presenting a peculiar activity called jutten in Dutch, i.e. looking for all types of things washed ashore on beaches in the hope of finding valuable objects. This activity is officially illegal, but it is usually tolerated by many local Dutch authorities. A group of jutters is its core. For the interview I spoke with one of them, Henk van Velzen.
The Tobacco Historical museum is a small museum located in Delft and founded by Louis Bracco Gartner. It focuses on tobacco and anything related to it, from the product itself, for example, to (clay) pipes and other objects produced throughout time to consume it, to old cigar- and cigarette packages.
The argument of the thesis is developed throughout three chapters that represent the different phases these private museums went through; phases that have shaped these private museums up to this day. The first phase focuses on the passion of the owner-curators eventually leading them to take the leap and become owner-curators of their own museum. The second phase considers the aspect of selecting objects and information to broaden their collection and deepen their knowledge about it. The third phase concerns the presentational aspect of the museum. Recurring through these chapters are specific core themes that are essential to the argument. They touch upon issues such as the discussion around the term ‘amateur’ as opposed to ‘professional’; the owner-curators’ focus on factual knowledge; the wider communities from which the owner-curators operate, whilst still acting individually; and the issue of public reach, often so differently approached by these owner-curators compared to professional museums.
Historiographical Framework: The Historical Culture
Before commencing the analysis of the case studies, a historiographical framework is outlined to enhance its understanding. This framework provides the historical context in which private museums have emerged and continue to function within Dutch society. Public history
distinguishes itself as academic field because of its focus on the bottom-up approach towards the past existing in society. One of the originators of the academic discussion that can be considered as the foundation of public history is Raphael Samuel, an academic historian. In the 60s, with his movement called the History Workshop, Samuel started the trend of looking outside official historical spheres, to consider the bottom-up rather than the top-down approach towards the past.12 Other historians followed suit in a similar vein, giving voice to these official or
non-academic ways of handling the past, which include among others owning private collections, producing (and watching) historical films, and participating in re-enactments of historical events, among others.13
This trend in academic research has led to an interest in analysing the historical culture of many societies, i.e. the ways in which the past is approached throughout time in each society. In this analysis, everyone in a society is involved, since history is not the exclusive ambit of academic historians. History is not perceived as an elite sphere any longer. That historical cultures have become increasingly researched is not strange in a historical period that according to philosopher Hermann Lübbe is more strongly and intensely fixed on the past than ever before.14
I shall present a concise overview of the historical culture in the Netherlands as of WWII, since that is the most relevant period to this thesis, leading up to the historical culture of the 2000s. I shall only shortly refer to the preceding period. Before the late 18th century, the historical
culture in Western Europe showed a very different attitude towards the past than seen in later times, as Lowenthal describes: ‘Earlier folks fused past with present. Stability and cyclical recurrence muted marks of change and averted the breaches that now sunder old from new. (…) While in our world the new replaces the old, in theirs the new was but another aspect of the
12 In 1967 the first History Workshop was held. A brief history of the movement is recounted on the
History Workshop website, demonstrating that the movement is still alive today. Luke Parks, ‘An Introduction & Index to the Material’, History Workshop Online, 5 November 2012.http://www.historyworkshop.org.uk/the-history-workshop-archives-an-introduction/. Accessed 2 January 2018.
The renowned academic journal emerging from this movement - at first called the History Workshop, later History Workshop Journal - was first published in April 1976. It is still published today, in an online form, on the website: https://academic.oup.com/hwj. Accessed 2 January 2018.
13 Some examples of works discussing such activities are: Ann Gray and Erin Bell, History on Television
(Londen/New York, 2013); Hilda Kean and Paul Ashton, ‘Introduction: People and their Pasts and Public History Today’, in: Idem, ed., Public History and Heritage Today. People and Their Pasts (Basingstoke, 2012); Jerome de Groot, Consuming History: Historians and Heritage in Contemporary Popular Culture, (London, 2ndEdition 2016); Pierre Nora, ‘Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de Mémoire’, Representations, 26 (1989); Simon Schama, ‘Television and the Trouble with History’, in: David Cannadine, ed., History and the Media (New York, 2004).
eternal’.15 A clear continuum between the past and the present existed in the minds of people.
Tollebeek argues that the French Revolution was the main catalyser for a change in this mentality, as it formed a previously unimaginable rupture of the system. That is where a more complicated relationship with the past began.
As he argues, when we look at the post-WWII period, there was a ‘desire to denounce and often debunk a past that was seen as wrong, where a continuity between past and present was no longer regarded as a good thing’.16 This stemmed from the political trend at the time in
which society was highly criticised by many, especially in the 60s and partly the 70s. From this seizure with the past grew a desire in later decades instead to ‘mask the loss’ of past times. Those were times in which ‘the gulf between past and present proved too wide’ to recreate a sincere connection to the past.17
Indeed, this perceived gap in peoples’ minds forms the main explanation behind the attitude towards the past since the 70s. The past is no longer recognisable, but instead faraway and strange. This gives rise to a sense of wonder towards those times that were so different from present-day society. Continuity is no longer the concept one associates with the passage of time, rather that of discontinuity. 18 Nowadays therefore it has become a necessity for people to try to
hold on in any way possible to that past that is becoming ever more detached from their own world. ‘Never before (has so much) been recorded, collected; and never before has remembering been so compulsive.’19
This is where the concept of nostalgia comes in. On this concept there has been, and still is, a discussion on what exactly it means and how strongly it is present in society nowadays. Ribbens provides a fine summary of the debate around this concept, affirming that most authors ‘agree that nostalgia is an important phenomenon that can be seen as typical for the current day handling of the past.’ The explanation behind this attitude is said to be ‘dissatisfaction about the past, sometimes in combination with a lack of trust in the future (…), together with a clearly noticed difference between present and past (…)’.20 However, it is not the exclusive type of
approach towards the past, in the sense that it is not always this rather negative idea about the present and the future that drives peoples’ interest and shapes peoples’ view of the past. Even if present-day society might be perceived negatively by some, it is not always completely refuted, as some authors seem to argue when explaining the predominance of nostalgia in present-day historical culture. ‘The nostalgic fascination should above all be seen as a way to enrich the current-day existence by making use of the multiform difference of the past’.21 Yet a recurring
element of the nostalgic approach always noticed (so among people both positive and negative
15 Lowenthal, Heritage Crusade, 13.
16 Jo Tollebeek, Metamorfoses van het Europese Historisch Besef, 1800-2000 (Brussel 2015), 28.
17 Ibid.
18 Ibid., 23.
19 Ribbens, Eigentijds Verleden, 10.
20 Ibid., 24.
about the present and the future) is the fact that the positive aspects of the past are accentuated, the negative ones virtually never.
No wonder that heritage has become so immensely popular in that same span of time, especially from the 90s up until today, a time in which the past is sought to be retained more than ever before.22 This is due for an important part to a democratization of heritage starting in the
60s, both in terms of who conserves it and what it involves, as Samuel perceives it. There are more people – not solely academic historians – conserving and narrating about a broader range of historical topics than before that time; topics that often were, and still are, seen as unworthy of conservation or even of notice by academic historians; topics including objects from everyday life and from more recent times than collectors and historians before were interested in.23 ‘Heritage
today hails even the living’, as Lowenthal notes when he gives an example of a Bruce Springsteen museum opening and closing during the musician’s life. This fact underlines the democratization of heritage as well, since ‘especially for those with little schooling, things with living memory have a relevance absent from other remoter times’.24 More people in society, not solely the elite,
are catered for since WWII, as museums have started presenting potentially interesting historical subjects that would not be found in museums before that time.
Museums are crucial institutions in the conservation and presentation of historical subjects to various publics. The development of these institutions closely connects to
developments in the historical culture. I shall focus on the period after WWII.25 Up to that time,
museums in the Netherlands were mostly concerned with curating their own collection, rather than focusing on the public aspect of the museum, which meant they ‘got a somewhat dusty image and held that image until far into (the 20th) century’.26 This changed from the 60s: ‘they
shook off the dusty image, their doors were opened to bigger groups of visitors’.27 From this time
on a growing amount of museums was established, with the growth lasting and making the Netherlands the country with the highest density of museums in the world in the 90s.28 The
function to educate people with the collections was the central aim of museums in the 60s and 70s. It was from this time as well that the government started being involved in the museum sphere. It was a matter of national politics now to disseminate culture among as many people in society as possible, reflecting the prevailing socialist-democratic ideas to ‘elevate the masses’ through culture.29 This drive lasted roughly until the 80s, when the aim changed into bringing
across information in the most attractive way possible. From that time on, many cuts were made by the government resulting in museums no longer taking for granted their unquestioned
22 Lowenthal, Heritage Crusade, 2.
23 Samuel, Theatres of Memory, 25; Ribbens, 29.
24 Lowenthal, Heritage Crusade, 17.
25 For an excellent, compact development of museums in the Netherlands since the 19
th century, see: JesseBos, Openbare Schatkamers in Verandering: Musea in Nederland in een tijd van verzelfstandiging en privatisering (Amsterdam, 2001), 31-44.
26 Ibid., 34.
27 Ibid.
28 Ibid., 64.
29 Ibid., 35-6.
existence, as market logic started to be increasingly applied to their sector as well, especially as of the 90s. At the same time museums began to be confronted with imposed expectations stemming from the same kind of market logic. They had to reach a certain number of visitors to produce enough money to cover the expenses the government was not willing, or even able, to cover through funding. Eventually, a new law was published in 1993 to initiate a process that would allow previously publicly funded museums to gradually become privatised – a process still occurring nowadays.30
But why was there an increase in museums in the first place? And why did they receive more visitors throughout the past century than in the times before that? That is due to the changes in the historical culture, which also affected, and still affect, both professional and private museums. An important concept here is that of musealisation. It is connected to the swiftly changing society of the 20th century, which consequently led to people wanting to hold on to
traces to prevent them from disappearing completely. People do not simply throw away things any longer when they have become somewhat old, not even everyday life objects. ‘A part of these objects is therefore put in museums. (…) Through the increasing musealisation we compensate for a loss of cultural familiarity due to the fast pace of change’.31 The increased popularity of
museums is explained by this phenomenon and is manifest in the greatly increased number of museum visitors since WWII. However, it is important to not quickly draw the conclusion that the popularity is fully due to that perceived musealisation. This surge in visitors is also due to factors such as population growth, more free time, a rise of individuals with a higher level of education, and increased wealth in the Netherlands. Improved mobility helps people with more free time and money to reach all kinds of museums more easily. This even applies to the increased mobility of tourists, an important group among the museum visitors in the past decades.32 Not everyone
visits a museum to hold on to the past and find stability or even continuity in it, or simply to escape from the present. It must be admitted that relaxation, recreation, and even the simple enjoyment of beauty, often win as motives behind a museum visit instead of self-development.33
This constitutes another approach towards the past to be found in current society: a light-hearted one.
Another way in which the historical culture influences museums is through the above-mentioned democratization of heritage. Museums have started to consider the varied interests of its varied public by collecting and exhibiting objects related to a broader range of topics, more oriented towards daily life and more recently created than the usual exhibited objects in museums, distancing themselves from the elite culture that used to be the traditional focus of museums. Moreover, an increased focus on regional and even local history can be noticed in museums as of the 60s, together with a focus on popular culture. This is due to the need to make
30 Ibid., 42-4.
31 An extensive discussion of the term is provided by Ribbens. Ribbens, Eigentijds Verleden, 25-6.
32 Ibid., 67.
the past presented in museums more accessible and recognisable to a bigger audience, as detected in the historical culture from the 60s onward.34
What we notice as well is an increased specialisation of museums starting to focus on one specific subject or place instead of offering a broad variety of topics to exhibit on.35 Since the
50s a great amount of independent museums have arisen, often specialized in one subject or locality.36 This increase in independent museums has also been noted elsewhere, for instance in
the US, where, as in the Netherlands, they come in a great variety, ‘ranging from professionally to haphazardly administered, from well to precariously supported, and from broadly representative to highly unusual in content’.37 Thanks to the developments occurred in the past centuries the
Netherlands can count now on a broad and interesting cluster of museums. These institutions are not separated from the rest of society, but are heavily influenced by it. By looking at museums, one can learn much about the society they reside in.
It is important not to overlook collectors in society – a group of enthusiasts that existed well before the appearance of the first museums,38 and which is constantly growing since. It is
from this group that the private museums of today have arisen. The same developments in the historical culture have had, and still have, effect on their behaviour, with a broader range of objects seen as collectable, and more types of people being collectors – not solely those from the elite affording expensive antiquities. Collectors do not only act individually, but form groups among them as well, e.g. by organizing big markets held yearly that attract many visitors,
demonstrating how invested many collectors are in their activity. Interesting to note is that many see themselves as ‘historical hobbyists’, thus perceiving collecting as a historical activity. However, this does not mean that every collector is as invested in researching and understanding the history his objects are connected to as other collectors: the group of collectors cannot be generalised in its breath and variation.39
It is interesting to mention already an important theme related to this diversity among collectors in Dutch society: the fact that most academics and professionals in the museum spheres conceive of collectors as amateurs, whereas certain collectors (those taking their activity seriously) often feel irritated when described that way.40 What makes this matter interesting is
that, on the one hand, collectors seem to be willing to act independently in their activities, outside the official spheres of academia and professional museums; on the other, a recognition for their work by the professional spheres is apparently longed for, when being called an amateur is
34 Ibid., 71.
35 Ibid., 71-2.
36 Bos, Openbare Schatkamers, 38.
37 David E. Kyvig, ‘Foreword’, in Amy K. Levin, (ed.), Defining Memory: local museums and the construction of history in America’s changing communities (Lanham, 2006), 3.
38 The first national museums were actually formed out of private collections from elites in society. Bos,
Openbare Schatkamers, 31-2.39 Ibid., 104-107.
40 Indeed, demonstrating the extent of the tension surrounding the term is the fact that van den Broek and
van Houwelingen have purposefully used the term ‘heritage practitioner’ instead of ‘amateur’ in their work, since the latter term is ‘problematic’. Van den Broek and van Houwelingen, Gisteren Vandaag, 85.almost considered an insult. This is the case especially among the collectors who even see themselves as experts in their field, as some owner-curators from the case studies do (a point I shall develop further below). There is (still) a clear separation and a certain tension between the official and bottom-up spheres in this respect.
1. Passion as Inspiration and Drive
The owner-curator
After this historiographical background, the analysis of the case studies begins. Let us first consider the special position held by the owner-curator. These individuals are not mere
collectors. By becoming an owner-curator, they distinguish themselves from a great multitude of collectors in the Netherlands who keep on going about their business ‘in silence’.41 Their function
has a crucial impact on the character of their private museums. The most important aspect to note is that an owner-curator handles multiple tasks, simultaneously: ‘collector, originator, designer, curator, and docent’.42 In professional museums one would find these tasks distributed
among several employees. An important factor contributing to the special character of this position is the fact that the person curating the collection and its presentation, is himself closely related to the subject of the museum by having experienced it personally, for instance (as in the case of the owner-curator of the Ice-Skating museum: he has been practicing that sport ever since his youth), or by simply being passionate about it. Nick Stanley calls this ‘indigenous curation’.43
Subjectivity, an essential part of private museums with an owner-curator, finds its origin in the existence of this position.
Who are these owner-curators? What do they have in common? Firstly, all of them are men and older than fifty. This reflects the general situation in the Netherlands, where most collectors are older men.44 Furthermore, as mentioned among the characteristics of the case
studies, most owner-curators do not have an official education in museological studies or related academic studies. In most cases they have no academic education at all (except for Friso, the curator of the DDR museum). They are mostly self-taught in their position as owner-curator. Again, this reflects the general Dutch situation, in which most frequent heritage practitioners (not only collectors) are self-taught in their activities.45 In this they differ as well
from many employees working in professional museums. The professionalization of museums in the Netherlands resulted in an increased number of tasks at professional museums now requiring an education to perform them. Restorers, for instance, have only started to receive scientific
41 Ribbens, Eigentijds Verleden, 104.
42 Carol Kammen, ‘Book Review of Private History in Public: Exhibition and the Settings of Everyday Life by
Tammy S. Gordon’, The Public Historian, 33, 1 (2011), 102.43 Gordon, ‘Heritage, Commerce, and Museal Display’, 42.
44 Van den Broek and van Houwelingen, Gisteren Vandaag, 88.
45 Ibid., 93.
schooling for their task in the late 90s; the same applies to tasks that imply contact with the public.46
Finding the passion
Why did these owner-curators become passionate about their museums’topic? It is relevant to ask this question, since ‘the life of any individual collector helps explain the origins and inherent integrity of a personal collection’.47 What makes a private museum stand out from other museums
is the personal nature of its collection. The fact that the personal story of the owner-curators plays a key role in the character of the museums, immediately highlights the close relatedness existing between the two. Remarkably, not all collections start out of a pre-existing passion for the topic. Chance can play a considerable role in this process. The Tobacco Historical museum is a case in point. Louis, its owner-curator, was not interested in clay pipes initially, but was offered a batch of them, excavated near his tobacco shop and post office in Delft. From that moment on, his interest in the subject began to grow as he was increasingly intrigued by clay pipes, their variety, and the history behind them.48
Part of the first set of clay pipes of the collection at the Tobacco Historical museum, still kept together in a drawer specifically dedicated to it
46 ‘Bijlage 1. Systematisch overzicht van betekenissen waarin enkele kernbegripen zijn gebruikt; IV.
Empirisch/museumkundig – 1. Empirisch Object’, in Bos, Openbare Schatkamers.47 Fath Davis Ruffins, ‘Mythos, Memory and History: African American Preservation Efforts, 1820-1990’, in
Ivan Karp, Christine Mullen Kreamer, and Steven D. Lavine (eds.), Museums and Communities – The Politics of Public Culture (Washington, 1992), 514.In most cases, however, the main drive to begin a collection is the initial passion for the subject, as in the case of the DDR museum. Friso, the owner-curator of this museum, is not German himself but has been intrigued by the subject well before the fall of the wall. The Juttersmuseum was created because the topic was, and still is, part of the lives of its owner-curators: before becoming owner-curators, they were already practicing the activity which later gave rise to their museum, i.e. looking for all kinds of things washed ashore on beaches. As this activity is often performed in groups, the set-up of the museum reflects the topic, with a group of
jutters sharing the position of owner-curators of the museum.49 In all cases, a spontaneity and
ease in the way collections were initially formed and then evolved can be found. It is an organic process, with one or a few persons deciding about the entirety of the collection from the beginning, therewith heavily influencing its content. Apart from that, they act out of passion for the subject, usually meaning that they have a positive view on it, which undoubtedly colours the collections’ content even more.
The Bigger Picture
Slowly but steadily, as the collections grow and therewith the owner-curators’ interest for them, the owner-curators start delving more into the topic, realising how it connects to a bigger historical picture. That bigger picture can differ greatly per private museum. The case studies demonstrate this clearly, with stories ranging from local, to national or international. Even if a connection to a locality is often present, the museum may not highlight that local aspect of the topic.50 In the DDR museum this is quite clear since Eastern Germany is the subject, and it shows
no connection to the Netherlands or Monnickendam, where the museum is located. In the Beatles museum however, a topic international in character, the Dutch connection is clearly significant and figures prominently. A considerable part of the exhibition space is occupied by a sequence of panels presenting the story of the Beatles visiting the Netherlands. ‘That’s my chauvinism (…). I am very proud that we’ve had the Beatles in the Netherlands’.51 The subjectivity to be found in the
Beatles museum is already demonstrated by this selection. In the case of the Tobacco Historical museum, the link to the locality is present but not so prominently. Delft might have been an important place for the production of pipes in the past and later of cigars as well, but as Louis recounts, the Netherlands were at one point ‘the only ones to have the biggest export of clay pipes’ and even tobacco plantations as far as Indonesia, which highlights the national and international aspects of the topic.52 In the Ice-Skating museum the exhibited objects are mainly
from the Netherlands, there is even a showcase dedicated to the royal family’s connection to
ice-49 Interview with Henk van Velzen at the Juttersmuseum, 15 October 2017, 02:51-03:00.
50 There is much literature about the salience of a museum’s connection to the locality, but this is not that
present in all of the case studies, such as the DDR museum. Kyvig, ‘Foreword’, 3.51 Interview with Azing Moltmaker at the Beatles museum, 29:41-29:45.
skating (displaying, among others, the ice skates of young Wilhelmina, great-grandmother of the current king).53 The local aspect is pivotal in the Juttersmuseum, since it is tied to Zandvoort,
where the museum is situated and where most objects have been found. All case studies, regardless of the extent to which they highlight the local aspect of the subject or not, reflect the abovementioned museum trend in the Netherlands54 of focusing on one subject and treating it in
detail.
The private museums present topics that many people feel identified with and passionate about. Here we touch upon a core theme of the thesis, namely that owner-curators virtually deal with their topic by acting from a community of similarly enthusiastic people; private museums are always tied to larger communities of people wanting to conserve a specific part of history.55 Those people are in the first place the fellow-collectors, who dedicate money and
time to the topic, like the owner-curators. The public reach extends as well for a big part to people that are connected to the topic, but not necessarily collectors themselves. An example is ‘the ice-skating world’, with many current and former famous ice-skaters visiting the Ice-Skating museum regularly. As Gauke points out, ‘the entire ice skating world knows us’.56 Another
example are Beatles fans that are not LP collectors themselves: they constitute an important part of the Beatles museum’s visitors.
That core community can vary in size, with the DDR museum for instance being aware of catering for a small public of Dutch people specifically interested in the DDR: ‘This is a small subject, this is for admirers, for specialists.57 Azing, in contrast, feels that his museum can attract
everyone, since ‘the Beatles are of everyone’58: in his eyes there are no limits to the community
his museum caters for. The subject of a museum - and this counts for the professional ones as well –has indeed a great impact on the museum’s public reach.
The people connected to the topics of the private museums are all ‘insiders’. ‘Outsiders’ are more difficult to reach by such specialized museums. Surely, they do constitute a part of the museum visitors. It should not be overlooked that the desire to be entertained is the primary motivation of many museum visitors: they go for their enjoyment and simply want to be surprised.59 Still, the core audience is made up of fellow-collectors and other people closely
related to the museums’ topics. Most owner-curators do not seem to mind the fact that their public reach remains therefore relatively low. This is something that stands in stark contrast with many professional museums, having public expectations and public reach as priorities in the
53 Interview with Gauke Bootsma at the Ice-Skating museum, 31:16-31:26.
54 See page 13 of this thesis.
55 Sarah Baker and Alison Huber, ‘Notes towards a typology of the DIY institution: Identifying
do-it-yourself places of popular music preservation’, European Journal of Cultural Studies, 16, 5 (2013), 526. The article is about popular music heritage in particular, but it points out well the fact of individuals, even as collectors, being tied to broader communities.56 He is talking about the Dutch ice-skating scene here. Interview with Gauke Bootsma at the Ice-Skating
museum, 23:17-23:29.57 Interview with Friso de Zeeuw at the DDR museum, 2 October 2017, 06:03-06:08.
58 Interview with Azing Moltmaker at the Beatles museum, 27:34-27:43.
management of both their collections and exhibitions. This point shall be further developed below.
Motivations
Yet, while the owner-curators of private museums might be less focused on constantly extending the public reach of their museums, they do aim to inspire as many people as possible through them. Indeed, one of the most often mentioned motivations for starting a museum among the owner-curators of the case studies was that of sharing their own life-work (both the objects collected throughout the years and the knowledge gathered about the topic) with a broader public than merely friends, family members and fellow-collectors. They want to share it with those who care about the subject, but also with those potentially interested in it, which, in essence, is comparable to the traditional aim of most professional museums: enriching people’s life with their knowledge and objects. Gauke, for instance, declares: ‘Look, you cannot keep it to yourself. The Elfstedentocht is not mine, ice-skating is not mine’.60 He seems to have a sense of
duty to share a knowledge that is part of a shared culture, and thus of a shared history. Azing specifically mentions his contribution to education, referring to schools in Alkmaar organizing projects for their students at his museum.61
Often a sense of loss is mentioned as explanation for going public, in the sense that it would be a shame not to share a private collection, which demonstrates the idea the owner-curators have about their own life’s work and the topic they are so passionate about. Showing it to the world is of relevance to them. They are the keepers of that heritage. Louis, for instance, seems to aim at preventing the fall into oblivion of an important, overlooked chapter in Dutch history, that of the Dutch supremacy on the global tobacco trade, and of the importance of smoking in Dutch culture throughout the centuries.62 He sees himself as one of the few keepers of
this aspect of Dutch heritage. Indeed, most private museums (at least among my case studies) share the belief, in a very natural way, that their museum contributes to the historical knowledge about their topic (be it local, national, or international) and to the cultural heritage associated with it. They trust that their museums benefit society. Interestingly, this assertion closely
resembles the ICOM definition of what a museum ought to be, namely an institution that benefits society. The most accurate and inspiring example of this perspective is contained in Gauke’s answer, when I asked him whether he has the feeling that he adds to the Dutch historical
knowledge with his museum. Without hesitation he replied: ‘Yes, I am one hundred per cent sure of that’.63
60 Interview with Gauke Bootsma at the Ice-Skating museum, 21:23-21:33.
61 Interview with Azing Moltmaker at the Beatles museum, 22:14-22:29.
62 Interview with Louis Bracco Gartner at the Tobacco Historical museum, 28:44-29:33.
63 Interview with Gauke Bootsma at the Ice-Skating museum, 50:32-50:43.
What they do is seen as a noble cause, a civic duty, almost. This is because there is a common perception nowadays that heritage belongs to everyone and is essential for our sense of identity and belonging, thus necessary to be maintained in a good manner.64 It is tied to the
enormous rise of importance of heritage, as discussed above,65 which is so much part of our
current historical culture. Private museums, or rather their owner-curators, are virtually custodians of a specific past that otherwise would go lost and that appertains to many people who care to revisit and relive it, to then identify with it.66 Or to people who simply marvel at the
difference between that heritage and present-day culture. The fact that the case studies often receive donations, usually in the form of objects, from people believing that the objects belong there and that the museums function as important places keeping that heritage alive, testifies that the value of private museums is not solely perceived by the owner-curators or other collectors in Dutch society.67
In saying they want to make their collection open to a larger public than their closest circles, the owner-curators seem to believe that more people would come in touch with the subject through their private museum than would be the case without its existence. Yet those beliefs are not necessarily always acted upon. Public expectations are not necessarily the main guide in shaping the collections or presentations of private museums, even if they were able to enhance the public reach of the museum. Those expectations will not make most owner-curators drastically change their way of exhibiting or collecting. An example of this attitude in some private museums is the unwillingness of changing exhibitions to attract more visitors, as found in most case studies.
Yet, the Beatles and Ice-Skating museums do. The reason the latter are more focused on public expectations and seek to amplify their pubic reach is that, in those specific cases, another important motivation plays a role. Highly practical and commercial motivations can be a drive for opening a museum. The Beatles museum and the Ice-Skating museum are excellent examples of this type, and among the case studies the only ones with such a clear commercial goal for their enterprise. They demonstrate that the term museum can become as flexible as to serve as a marketing tool for one’s own work. Firstly, there is the Beatles museum, with Azing continuously referring to it as ‘a company’.68 An important motivation for starting his museum was actually
gaining popularity for the fan club Azing had started: ‘it is cheaper to set up a museum and rent a property (…) than placing advertisements’.69 Plus, it was, and still is, a way to sell more of his
64 Lowenthal, Heritage Crusade, 67-8.
65 See page 11 of this thesis.
66 Maja Mikula, ‘Vernacular museum: communal bonding and ritual memory transfer among displaced
communities’, International Journal of Heritage Studies, 21, 8 (2015), 759; Baker and Huber, ‘Notes towards a typology of the DIY institution’, 525-6.67 This does not solely happen in the Netherlands, naturally. This article indeed stresses the point that it is
a global trend of communities and individuals to take ownership over specific parts of popular (music) heritage, in preserving it and presenting it, and therewith adding to the collective memory of that historical topic. The article is about popular music heritage specifically, but can be applied to other types of historical topics and heritage as well, as I see it and as the case studies reflect. Mikula, Vernacular museum, 514, 526.68 Interview with Azing Moltmaker at the Beatles museum, 44:04-44:06.
books, since it is cheaper to promote them through his own museum, than to pay for advertisement costs. Through the museum ‘the books sell themselves automatically’.70 I was
almost surprised when I head such a lucid, straightforward answer, but it taught me once more how broad the take on the museum concept can be.
The Ice-Skating museum is the example of a growing family business, where the owner-curator’s wife has always been involved in the business’ management and the involvement of their children is ever increasing. At first, Gauke and his wife owned an antique shop, also selling furniture that he painted in the traditional local style of Hindeloopen.71 Then, Gauke’s private
collection became a museum that kept on expanding, and eventually a restaurant was added to the enterprise, attracting even more visitors. Today, even Chinese tourists arrive by bus to visit the typical Frisian village of Hindeloopen. Their tour often includes a visit to the Ice-Skating museum.72 The museum has been additionally expanded, and it includes now a room on the first
floor (above the Ice-Skating museum, restaurant, and shop) to exhibit objects and traditions of the local cultural heritage. It includes a section built as a workshop where furniture is painted in the traditional local style, with Gauke himself sometimes demonstrating it. The enterprise keeps on growing and is for an important part focused on making profit. For this museum, enhancing the public reach is part of the management of the museum. Gauke firmly believes that visitors should be attracted continuously, in whichever possible way, since they do not come by themselves.73
The question is whether this flexible and often commercial use of the term museum is allowed or simply suitable, but if one considers it closely, the way in which many major, professional museums behave currently is highly commercial as well, due to the current expectations placed on them.74 The addition and growing popularity of museum shops and
museum cafés accentuates this trend.75 It is thus not something new or specific to private
museums, even if the openness about such a commercial approach by the owner-curators is striking.
Another motivation for opening a private museum – and perhaps in many cases the fundamental and underlying one - derives from a very human trait: pride about one’s creation, and need to be recognised for it. To be recognized not only by satisfied visitors, but also as owner-curator of a valuable museum. Among some owner-owner-curators of the case studies, there is in my opinion a desire to belong, to whichever extent, to the Dutch museum sphere. The issue of the tension between so-called amateurs and professionals rises again. On the one hand, private museums act in a bottom-up, independent way, detached from the rules on how to deal with the
70 Ibid., 17:11-17:32.
71 Still today, Gauke sees painting as his main job, not the management of the museum: that is not his
priority.72 Interview with Gauke Bootsma at the Ice-Skating museum, 05:35-05:48.
73 Ibid., 13:09-13:20; 55:26-01:02:07.
74 As discussed in this thesis on pages 11 and 12.
75 See for instance ‘Chapter 16. Museums, tourism, gift shops and the historical experience’ in Jerome de
Groot, Consuming History: Historians and Heritage in Contemporary Popular Culture, (London, 2nd Editionpast set by the professional spheres. While on the other, they long to be taken seriously as museums, in terms of owning a worthy collection and applying a suitable exhibition style.
This tension is mainly perceived when one considers the arguments used by owner-curators to legitimate their museum as valuable one. Various strategies are adopted to gain authority as owner-curators and as museums. It is mainly done by accentuating the worth of the collection through its objects’ authenticity, rarity, and uniqueness, therewith following the same types of concepts about the worth of a museum collection decreed by professional museums. Azing, for instance, talks about certain LP covers as ‘covers that people probably have never seen before’ because of their rarity,76 whereas Gauke talks about some of his top items as the
‘Rembrandts among the ice skates’, clearly taking as a reference point the professional museums world’s standards of what constitute valuable objects.77
Interestingly, seeing one’s museum as a legitimate, valuable cultural institution, does not necessarily imply viewing one’s collection as highly valuable. Some owner-curators take their collection far less seriously than others. The Juttersmuseum, for instance, demonstrates an extreme towards the non-serious: ‘Look, the Rijksmuseum is naturally wonderful, but that has worth. (…) everything that is shown here does not have worth, that is the big difference of course’.78 Clearly, other norms are held here about what a museum ought to be: the
owner-curators at the Juttersmuseum do not need their collection to have great worth to be proud of their museum. Azing, on the contrary, literally calls the Stedelijk Museum Alkmaar (the main professional museum of the region) his ‘colleague’,79 placing his own collection and museum on
the same level as the latter.
Financial Structures
Apart from considering the reasons why the owner-curators embarked on the adventure of opening their museums, analysing the more practical financial aspect of managing such an enterprise can tell a lot about the character of the owner-curators, and of their museums. A salient difference with many professional museums is the independence retained from the beginning. As Azing affirms: ‘The fact in which we deviate mostly is that we refuse subsidies’.80
This deliberate choice is based on the principle that the owner-curators do not want to be limited by external partners or institutions. Private museums do not have expectations imposed on them by the government or other funders, whereas professional, often still publicly-funded museums do. Independence is a crucial issue on which private museums are not willing to compromise. Therewith they can work outside official spheres from their inception, contrary to professional
76 Interview with Azing Moltmaker at the Beatles museum, 13:53-13:59.
77 Interview with Gauke Bootsma at the Ice-Skating museum, 32:32-32:54.
78 Interview with Henk van Velzen at the Juttersmuseum, 11:37-11:47.
79 Interview with Azing Moltmaker at the Beatles museum, 03:17-03:20.
80 Ibid., 01:05-01:10.
museums, pressured or having been pressured by the government, for instance, and influenced by the academic world to this day. 81
Louis is happy he does not have to produce four exhibitions per year, for instance, as some directors of professional museums he knows have to in order to receive subsidies.82 He also
points out that often funding even influences what is exhibited. He gives the example of a museum in Joure that had an exhibition on tobacco. It was a very limited exhibition, however, since they were not allowed to deal in depth with the subject: the museum is sponsored by the coffee sector, which had to receive most of the visitors’ attention.83 Museum politics, influenced by
commercial partners, thus steer decisions on the curation of many professional museums. A neutral, balanced approach is not always to be found in those museums, contrary to what they proclaim.
Even if the funders’ expectations might gradually diminish in many professional museums, the difference is still remarkable compared to private museums, at least to those considered in the case studies, that never accepted rules imposed on them by external bodies. This independence is what I consider freedom when comparing the two museum types. Private museums have the possibility to completely decide for themselves how to exhibit their collection as well as which type and number of objects they wish to obtain, keep, or do away. Besides that, there is no need for countless meetings to reach these decisions, nor to feel pressured about complying with external expectations such as reaching a certain number of visitors per year. Moreover, it is also possible to have views on the preservation of objects and on the future of the collection and of the museum, that deviate from those held by professional museum curators. Issues concerning climatic circumstances in which the objects need to be kept and exhibited, the number of days one object can be exhibited in a row, and the norms on how all objects need to be stored and insured, are only some examples of such rules. Views on the museums’ future can also be largely different from those retained in professional museums: the lifespan of a private museum often ends when the owner-curator passes away or when he decides to close it, whereas professional museums aim to benefit many generations to come.84
The lack of rules to follow when funding is not accepted has a great impact on how a museum functions. This is reflected in the case studies. Various financial structures were encountered, ranging from the museum being a foundation (and thus not being allowed to make profit with it, such as the DDR museum), fully self-funded (often together with the partner of the owner-curator, as is the case with the Tobacco Historical museum, the Ice-Skating museum and the Beatles museum), or sometimes seeking funding for specific projects (such as publishing a
81 Bos, Open Schatkamers, 42-44.
82 Interview with Louis Bracco Gartner at the Tobacco Historical museum, 27:36-27:46.
83 Ibid., 28:22-28:34. The museum talked about here is Museum Joure.
http://www.museumjoure.nl. Accessed 2 January 2018.84 The ICOM booklet lists these many, extensive rules as applied to professional museums. Patrick J. Boylan
(ed.), Running a Museum: A Practical Handbook (Paris, 2004).http://icom.museum/uploads/tx_hpoindexbdd/practical_handbook.pdf. Accessed 18 December 2018. Especially relevant are the chapters about ‘Collections Management’ (17-30), ‘Care and Preservation of Collections’ (51-90), and ‘Display, Exhibits and Exhibitions’ (91-104).
book about topics related to the museum, as in the case of the Ice-Skating museum85). Sometimes,
the museum functions as an actual business and it is run as such, producing income for the owner-curator, as in the case of the Beatles and Ice-Skating museum.
The reasons behind these different financial structures reflect the attitude of the owner-curators about their collections and museums. The DDR museum became a foundation for legal considerations, since it ensures that the collection of the museum remains intact when it is sold or when the owner-curator passes away.86 Friso’s attitude in this case is more closely related to
the ideas about how professional museums ought to be run. He has a longevity in mind for the collection that is not found at the Tobacco Historical museum, for instance. Louis has not adopted that type of financial structure for his museum on purpose, as he explains: ‘I want to do what I want with (the collection)’.87 Retaining a certain pride in one’s own independence is another
reason for refusing funding, as Gauke’s case shows: ‘Well, no, I do not like to look up at someone and thank him’.88 Similarly, Azing thinks that ‘The whole difference of course remains the one
hundred per cent independence that we have, no one can interfere with our museum. (…) I am proud that we can do all this. I could lead a very luxurious life by accepting subsidies or work with sponsors, but I have chosen not to do that: I want to have (the museum)’.89 The personal
view of the owner-curator thus greatly influences the working of the private museum, adding to its subjective character.
85 Interview with Gauke Bootsma at the Ice-Skating museum, 06:45-06:53. The book is called Een Eeuw
Elfstedentocht: berichten uit de schatkamer van het eerste Friesche schaatsmuseum, written by Ron Couwenhoven. Gauke collaborated to it by opening up the museum’s collection to the writer.https://www.bol.com/nl/p/een-eeuw-elfstedentocht/1001004007257096/. Accessed 2 January 2018.
86 Interview with Friso de Zeeuw at the DDR museum, 38:08-38:47.
87 Interview with Louis Bracco Gartner at the Tobacco Historical museum, 01:11:05-01:11:07.
88 Interview with Gauke Bootsma at the Ice-Skating museum, 14:50-15:38.
2. Selecting Objects and Information
The selection of the materials and of the information for the collection and its presentation in the museum is highly independent as well. The owner-curators have the possibility to go about it in their own way, which differs from the professional museum approach, and the academic
historical one. Let us consider that approach as well, together with the academic discussions held about it.
Setting the Stage: History, Heritage, Memory
What type of story is told in the various private museums, and what kind of objects are chosen to recount it? What type of information do the owner-curators use to create a narrative around the topic of their collection, and around the exhibited objects? From the public history perspective, this is one of the most interesting themes of the analysis, one that is key in examining the way in which the owner-curators approach the past. Next to the concept of nostalgia, the discussion held in literature about the difference among the categories ‘history’, ‘heritage’, and ‘memory’ is important here. Simply put, it questions how critical and nuanced, or subjective and uncomplicated, people’s approach towards the past is in different situations. By discussing this, the difference in attitude between private museums and professional ones is highlighted. It underlines the impact of the concept of ‘objectivity’, a concept that still dominates Western academia and related fields such as the professional museum world, and that is still widely impactful outside those spheres as well.
Overall, the difference is explained as follows. History is the narrative resulting from the objective, academic approach towards the past, in which one considers various (types of) sources and contextualises them to come to a nuanced image of that part of history. It is consequently recounted in a value-free, well-considered manner. Heritage, on the contrary, is what a certain group sees as its collective past, which has been handed on to them by previous generations. It is considered as something to cherish, something worthwhile to invoke from time to time,
therewith keeping it alive. Memory, simply put, is when aspects of one’s life are recalled, often in connection to events in present-day society, that make one think of particular parts of his or her
past, as placed in their historical political, cultural, and social contexts. The last two approaches towards the past bear in themselves a selectivity that often prefers to recall positive rather than negative aspects of the past. The narrative that results is therefore seen to be incomplete and not nuanced by academics, who have as goal to relate an image of the past that is looked at from multiple perspectives. Heritage and memory privilege a certain subjective look towards the past seen as the (only) valid one, often without the inclusion of other perspectives.90
This selectivity is the historians’ greatest criticism of the non-academic approaches towards the past. Especially the phenomenon heritage has been placed in a negative light from the moment it came on the academic agenda, with Lowenthal as acclaimed historian specialised in the topic, holding a relatively balanced view. 91 Interesting to note is that Lowenthal himself is
not necessarily ‘against’ heritage so to speak, and argues that ‘Heritage and history are not so much disparate species as opposite sexes, ever contesting roles and domains, yet mutually dependent and with more in common than they like to realize’.92 Samuel similarly is an example
of an academic historian who does not see a clear separation between those various approaches towards the past. His idea, by now well-known among historians, is that of ‘history as an organic form of knowledge, and one whose sources are promiscuous, drawing not only from real-life experiences but also memory and myth, fantasy and desire; not only the chronological past of the documentary record but also the timeless one of ‘tradition’.93
It seems he wants to restore the segregation between the concepts of history, heritage and memory, arguing that history as such is also artificial, and that it ‘composites (…) It integrates what in the original may have been divergent, synthesizes different classes of information (…), imposing order on chaos, and producing images far clearer than any reality could be’.94 Therewith
he is basically saying that history as produced by academics is also a mixture of different approaches towards the past, and not one fully separate from the others. Through his work, Samuel wants to clarify that the historical enterprise of academic historians is also not fully objective, since ‘history (…) is its own measure of significance and touchstone of worth’.95 Other
historians agree: ‘All interpretations contain some validity and some distortion; all have a social reality that makes them important in the present. All interpreters of the past develop their own stories or narratives that highlight the points the interpreter finds meaningful and leaves out that
