Enlightened ideas in Commemoration Books of the 1825 Zuiderzee Flood in the Netherlands

Published in:

P. Brandon at al. (eds.), Navigating History: Economy, Society, Science and Nature.

Essays in honor of Prof. Dr. C.A. Davids, (Leiden 2018), 275-297.

Included map: Map of the Netherlands, areas flooded by the storm surge of 3, 4 and 5 February 1825.

Keywords: flood - disaster - commemoration books - memory formation – Enlightenment

Enlightened ideas in Commemoration Books of the 1825 Zuiderzee Flood in the Netherlands

Petra J.E.M. van Dam and Harm Pieters

Abstract

Flood commemoration books developed out of other genres of commemoration during the eighteenth century and contributed to the formation of a Enlightened flood culture in the Netherlands. One can consider the flood culture, and especially the process of memory formation about the floods, as belonging to the cultural coping mechanisms available to flood victims. This chapter examines three major commemoration books of the Zuiderzee Flood of 1825 with respect to the characteristics of their authorship and their narratives. The authors exhibited traits of typical, well-educated, nineteenth-century bourgeois men, adhering to Enlightened norms and values both in their personal lives and in their scholarship. The authors’ narrative choices revealed their Enlightened positions and attitudes. They adhered to the more Enlightened religious view of the merciful God acting only at a distance, as ‘first cause’ of the creation. The authors criticize the most fanciful flood stories and ground their critiques in scientific research. Yet, commemoration books included some stories, in

particular tales of heroism and good governance in order to promote virtuous citizenship. The

main moral message of the commemoration books was that people must help each other. The

religious version of this message indicated that God created a universe that included natural

disasters like floods in order to give people the opportunity to help each other. Disaster is,

according to the authors, a chance, a most optimistic stance, befitting the bourgeois elite who was in control of the (natural) world.

Introduction

In the Netherlands, a variety of flood commemoration literature has existed since the Middle Ages. The so-called flood commemoration books developed out of other genres during the eighteenth century and contributed to the formation of a flood culture in the Netherlands in the nineteenth century.

Flood commemoration books contained descriptions of the events during inundations, but also included tragic stories of victims, miracles of survival, and stories about heroes. In addition, they dealt with the perceived causes of the flood and measures to be taken in order to prevent floods in the future. Flood commemoration books could be journalistic, sensational, or educational to varying degrees. They were a special kind of commemoration book and as such were important media in the collective memory formation of floods. Commemoration books contained extensive descriptions of disasters including earthquakes, city fires and floods, and other memorable events like special comets passing by or calves born with two heads, and they were published shortly after the events. Apart from books, other media such as pamphlets, chronicles, newspapers, sermons, theatre plays, novels, and poetry also

contributed to memory formation about such events. Authors of flood commemoration books used other memory documents, for instance newspapers, as sources. In turn, the

commemoration books served as sources for the other media, such as childrens’ books or novels with religious messages.

Regarding the contents, commemoration books shared similarities with pamphlets and chronicles, but differed as to their format and depth. They covered a much larger area than pamphlets or chronicles and were more voluminous. Their production took longer than pamphlets, often more than a year. Chronicles were of much wider scope and contained descriptions of all types of historical events, often focusing on earlier floods. Commemoration books specifically dedicated to floods only emerged as a genre in the course of the eighteenth century. Their content focused on one particular flood and offered more space for all sorts of details. One might say this was the start a specific genre, a genre that lasted well into the twentieth century, the flood commemoration books.

1 The authors thank the editors of this volume and Adam Sundberg for very thoughtful comments.

2 H. Pieters, “Herinneringscultuur van overstromingsrampen, Gedenkboeken van overstromingen van 1775,

1776 en 1825 in het Zuiderzeegebied”, Tijdschrift voor Waterstaatsgeschiedenis (TvW) 21, no. 1/2 (2012): 48-

Recent work in historical disaster scholarship has demonstrated the significance of storytelling as a coping strategy for societies that suffered the impact of natural disasters.

Rethinking and retelling stories about shocks, disruptions, and extreme circumstances contributes to sharing and digesting emotions, giving them a place in personal memories and collective memories. Discussing causes of floods and prevention policies reduces feelings of insecurity and promotes resilience after the flood. As a result, flood commemoration books can be considered elements of the ‘amphibious culture’ of the Netherlands, a culture that shaped how people coped with extreme events and engaged with water, both in daily life and during natural disasters.

In this chapter, we investigate the authors and narratives of three important

commemoration books of the 1825 flood, one of the largest and deadliest coastal floods of the nineteenth century. We analyse the way authors reported the flood: the way they presented the drama of the stories, how they interpreted the meaning of the flood, and in particular, how they approached transcendental or religious issues. The larger issue we want to address is to what extent these narratives revealed Enlightened ideas and if so, how they contributed to changes in flood memory formation. In this way, we add to a deeper understanding of very important long-term changes.

Historiography

The flood at issue took place on 3, 4 and 5 February 1825. It affected large areas of the provinces of Friesland and Overijssel, and smaller parts of the Wadden islands, the provinces of Utrecht and Holland, and of the islands in the southwestern region belonging to Holland and Zeeland (see map). Although the flood affected a vast expanse of the Flemish, Danish and German coastline, in the Netherlands, a relatively modest number of 379 lives were lost.

Some of the most important accounts of the floods came from commemoration books.

Three of the largest and most significant works covered varying parts of the Netherlands.

57. Many predecessors of the commemoration book are referred to in the large collection

of flood descriptions in M.K. E. Gottschalk, Stormvloeden en rivieroverstromingen in Nederland 1400- 1700[with summaries in English per year] (Assen: Van Gorcum & Comp., 1971-1977).

3 Michael Kempe, “‘Mind the Next Flood!’ Memories of Natural Disasters in Northern Germany from the Sixteenth Century to the Present.” The Medieval History Journal 10, no. 1&2 (2007): 327-354; G. Bankoff.,

“The ‘English Lowlands’ and the North Sea Basin System: A History of Shared Risk.” Environment and History 19 (2013): 3-37.

4 T. Bosch, “Natuur en cultuur. Modernisering van hulpverlening na catastrofale overstromingen in de Nederlandse Delta, 1740-1861,” TvW 21, no. 1/2 (2012), 46; P.J.E.M. van Dam, “An Amphibious Culture.

Coping with floods in the Netherlands,” in Local Places, Global Processes, eds. P. Coates, D. Moon, P. Warde (Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2016), 78-93.

5 J. van Malde, Historische stormvloedstanden. Rapport 2003.08.1 (No place: Rijkswaterstaat, RIKZ, 2003), 71.

F.D. Zeiler, “1825: de 'vergeten' watersnood”, TvW 16, no. 1 (2007): 19-26, 20: map.

Johannes Beijer wrote a commemoration book entitled Gedenkboek van Neerlands

watersnood in Feburarij 1825 [Commemoration book of the Dutch flood of February 1815]

(Den Haag 1826).

At 800 pages, it was by far the largest book and although it had a strong focus on Holland and Gelderland, it covered all flooded regions. The title of the book by Nicolaas Swart, Historisch tafereel van den zwaren watersnood op den 3den, 4den en 5den Februarij 1825 een groot deel van ons Vaderland hebbende getroffen [Historical account of the severe flood on the 3rd, 4th and 5

of February 1825, that affected a large part of our Fatherland] (Amsterdam 1826), suggests that the book of some 400 pages dealt with the whole of the Netherlands.

Only half of the book surveyed areas outside Holland and Amsterdam, however. The third author, Jacob van Leeuwen, wrote a book of 320 pages dealing with the province of Friesland, Geschiedkundig tafereel van den watervloed en de overstroomingen in de provincie Vriesland: voorgevallen in Sprokkelmaand MDCCCXXV [Historical account of the floods and the inundations in the province of Friesland: which occurred in Gleaning Month [February] MDCCCXXV] (Leeuwarden 1826).

No scholarly national survey exists that focuses on the 1825 flood or its

historiography, but several regional flood studies detail its effects on a more restricted spatial scale. In his study of Overijssel, F. Zeiler emphasized that this flood was regarded as the largest ‘flood of the century’ by contemporaries. In that respect, it was comparable to the status of the 1953 flood in the twentieth century. In 1953 a large part of the Southwestern Netherlands was flooded, and about 2,000 lives were lost.

F. Wieringa published a compelling account of the flood in the region of Waterland, situated in Noord-Holland just north of the IJ.

All these works resuscitated interest in the 1825 flood.

Toon Bosch has proposed interpreting all flood texts as elements of a national flood culture that existed in the nineteenth century and contributed to developing Dutch national identity. Royal tours of flooded areas became important elements of this flood culture, such as the visit of King William I to regions flooded by the Zuiderzee in 1825 and of King William

6 J. Beijer, Gedenkboek van Neerlands watersnood in Feburarij 1825 [Commemoration book of the Dutch flood of February 1815] (Den Haag: J.Immerzeel Jr., 1826).

7 N. Swart, Historisch tafereel van den zwaren watersnood op den 3den, 4den en 5den Februarij 1825 een groot deel van ons Vaderland hebbende getroffen [Historical account of the severe flood on the 3rd, 4th and 5

of February 1825, that affected a large part of our Fatherland] (Amsterdam: Schalekamp & Van de Grampel,1826).

8 J. van Leeuwen, Geschiedkundig tafereel van den watervloed en de overstroomingen in de provincie Vriesland: voorgevallen in Sprokkelmaand MDCCCXXV [Historical account of the floods and the inundations in the province of Friesland: which occurred in Gleaning Month [February] MDCCCXXV] (Leeuwarden:

G.T.N. Suringar, 1826).

9 F.D. Zeiler, “1825: de ‘vergeten’ watersnood”, 19-26 and F.D. Zeiler, “Ter Pelkwijk en het ‘Vaderlandsch Gevoel’,” in: Overijssels watersnood. Een heruitgave van het verslag van de ramp van 1825 (Zwolle: Stichting IJsselacademie, 2002), vi-xxii

10 F. Wieringa, Watersnood in Waterland. De ramp van 1825 (Schoorl: Pirola, 2010).

III to regions flooded by the rivers Meuse and Rhine in 1855 and 1861. Paintings and prints of these royal visits publicized the events and became iconic representations of the relationship between king and subject.

Memory studies offer a valuable new perspective on the relationship between flood history and the development of national identity. H. Pieters began the comparative study of flood commemoration books starting with the floods of 1775, 1776 and 1825. He argues that the new genre of commemoration books increased in popularity after 1775 and drew on significant connections to pre-existing genres of flood texts like pamphlets, chronicles, and books of general history. The goal of this new genre was typical of the Enlightenment.

Commemoration books were aimed at educating the readers and at instructing them how to behave in times of flood. G. Boomsma and P. van Dam investigated occasional poetry about the 1825 flood. They addressed issues of memory and charity and explained the motives of individuals for contributing to flood relief. They traced several Enlightenment ideas in the poems written by donors, and emphasized communal responsibility for disaster aid and recovery.

A broad international literature currently exists employing textual sources to uncover the relationship between knowledge and memory production in the aftermath of disasters. In his study on natural disasters in the Alps, C. Rohr developed a cultural-historical model to describe the perception of events of this kind. Other studies, for example, focused on the build-up of knowledge through repetitive river floods or the role of memory in knowledge building about sea defence.

Mental strategies for coping with disasters changed over the course of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and the Enlightenment influenced much of this transition. In her study on the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century dike culture of the Marsch region in Schleswig-Holstein, L.M. Allemeyer makes a distinction between four different answers to the question: How safe are our dikes? The more Enlightened or technological-optimistic one

11 T. Bosch, “Nijmegen en zijn ‘gryze Stroomgod’, Hoogwater, strenge vorst en calamiteuze watersnoden, 1781-1861,” Jaarboek Numaga 56 (2009): 33-53.

12 H. Pieters, “Herinneringscultuur van overstromingsrampen,” 48-57; A. Soetaert followed also a memory approach, using more types of sources to study the floods of 1409, 1571 and 1740, but concentrated on one city, Namur in French Belgium: ''’Pour servir de mémoire à la postérité’, Herinneringscultuur en overstromingen in het vroegmoderne Namen”, TvW 22, no. 2 (2013): 45-56; G.R Boomsma and P.J.E.M. van Dam, “‘Voor de ongelukkigen van de watersnood’ Historisch onderzoek naar de donorsmotieven bij watersnoden in de negentiende eeuw,” TvW 24, no. 1 (2015): 24-37; G. Poliwoda, Aus Katastrophen lernen: Sachsen im Kampf gegen die Fluten der Elbe 1784 bis 1845 (Cologne/Weimar/Vienna: Böhlau, 2007).

13 C. Rohr, Extreme Naturereignisse im Ostalpenraum: Naturerfahrung im Spätmittelalter und am Beginn der

Neuzeit (Cologne/Weimar/Vienna: 2007); Polliwoda, Aus Katastrophen lernen; M. Kempe, ”Mind the Next

Flood”.

that gains prominence in the late eighteenth century is that the dike can protect us as long as mankind cares enough about the maintenance of the dike.

This has also been described as an appeal to coastal communities to undertake action to influence nature and to protect

themselves from the dangers of the sea. From this perspective, a storm surge or flood

happened when human changes to nature did not fit into God’s order of nature. Sundberg also contributed an important study on Enlightened and other ideas in flood literature,

distinguishing several strands of discourses, including religious, technological and

administrative ones.

J. Buisman studied disasters to measure the penetration of Enlightened ideas into Dutch narratives constructed about these events. In his study, the focus is on the authors of publications on disasters.

His conclusions mirror the consensus view that it is too simple to state that scientific theories simply substituted religious narratives.

One may summarise the above by stating that flood coping strategies shifted along a spectrum away from traditional-religious perspectives towards strategies with more diversified and

perspectives based on reason and science.

R. Esser and M. Meijer Drees, in their introduction to the special issue of the journal Dutch Crossing devoted to natural disasters, mentioned that there is as yet no overarching, operational theory for systematically studying how people apply coping strategies and narratives to come to terms with catastrophes.

We propose that devising such a theory should also include the making of narratives, in our case the production of commemoration books. For 1825 we expect that we can identify Enlightened ideas in flood reporting

strategies, the presentation and drama of flood narratives, in the interpretive meaning assigned to the flood, and in particular the way authors approached transcendental or religious issues.

In this chapter we pose two sets of questions about the commemoration books. Who were the authors and how did they work? What was the choice of motives (short stories or anecdotes) in the narratives? What was their attitude to God and to science? In answering these

questions, we will demonstrate that commemoration books served as important vehicles for Enlightened memory production about the flood. The first part of this chapter describes and analyses the authorship of the selected 1825 commemoration books. It opens with short

14 M.L. Allemeyer, ‚Kein Land ohne Deich…!’: Lebenswelten einer Küstengesellschaft in der Frühen Neuzeit (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2006).

15 A. Sundberg, “Claiming the Past: History, Memory, and Innovation following the Christmas Flood of 1717,”

Environmental History 20, no. 2 (2015): 238-261.

16 J.W. Buisman, Tussen vroomheid en Verlichting. Een cultuurhistorisch perspectief en –sociologisch onderzoek naar enkele aspecten van de Verlichting in Nederland (1755-1810) (Vleuten: J. W. Buisman, 1992).

17 F. Mauelshagen, “Disaster and Political Culture in Germany since 1500” in Natural disasters, cultural responses, eds. C. Mauch and C. Pfister (Lanham: Lexington Books 2009), 61.

18 R. Esser and M. Meijer Drees, “Coping with crisis: an introduction”, Dutch Crossing 40 (2016): 93-96.

biographical notes on the authors and explores how the books fit into the oeuvre of the authors and how the authors worked. In the second part, we analyse the narratives. We focus on the religious and scientific frames authors used to interpret the floods.

The authors: life and oeuvre

Jacob van Leeuwen (1787-1857) was the author of Geschiedkundig tafereel van den

watervloed en de overstroomingen in de provincie Vriesland. He was born in the small town of Nieuwkoop in the province of Holland. His father, Cornelis van Leeuwen, was the mayor of Nieuwkoop and a large landowner. Jacob van Leeuwen intended to become a minister in the local Remonstrant Church. He received preparatory secondary education in Nieuwkoop, and in the large cities of Leiden and Hoorn, and then registered at the Remonstrant seminary in Amsterdam. In 1811, however, he was forced to leave the seminary when the difficult socio-economic circumstances caused by Napoleonic policies in the Netherlands left both his parents and the seminary without sufficient funding to complete his training. Van Leeuwen moved to the province of Friesland in the north of the Netherlands to become the private teacher of the children of Ambrosius Aijso van Boelens, the president of the juridical court of the town of Heerenveen.

This was the start of a long-lasting administrative-juridical career in Friesland. He began as assistant-registrar at the juridical court of the town of Leeuwarden and ended as first registrar of the newly created provincial court of Friesland in Leeuwarden.

Once settled in Friesland, Van Leeuwen developed a lively interest in the history of Friesland. This interest was intensified after writing the 1825 commemoration book, the more so because he integrated studies on previous floods in Friesland into the book. The most important of these books was by A.S. Gabbema

. Gabbema was appointed as chronicler of Friesland in 1659 and collected sources on the history of Friesland. He was one of the first authors who used primary sources for his writing about the flood history of Friesland.

The strong regional focus of the book by Van Leeuwen is explained at least in part by the fact that Friesland was the new patria of the author. Although he was born in Holland, after his first appointment as a teacher in Heerenveen in 1811, Van Leeuwen never left Friesland. He was among the founding members of the Frisian Society for History,

Archaeology, and Linguistics (Friesch genootschap voor geschied-, oudheid- en taalkunde)

19 W. Eekhoff, “Levensberigt van Jacob van Leeuwen,” Jaarboek van de Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde (1858): 218-242, http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/_jaa002185801_01/_jaa002185801_01_0028.php#172.

20 “Jacob of van Leeuwen,” in Repertorium van ambtsdragers en ambtenaren 1428-1861,

http://www.historici.nl/Onderzoek/Projecten/Repertorium/app/personen/957 (as accessed on 22 January 2013).

21 S.A. Gabbema, Nederlandsche Watervloeden, of nauwkeurige beschrijvingen van alle watervloeden

voorgevallen ... nabuirige landen (No place: 1703).

founded in 1827. He was also an active member of the local department of the Society for Public Welfare, the “Nut” (Maatschappij tot Nut van ‘t Algemeen). The Nut was an

organisation founded in 1784, which aimed to educate and enlighten ordinary citizens in the Netherlands. It founded schools and its members participated in public debates through publication in public media like journals. As such the Nut was a central element of the Dutch Enlightenment. Across the Netherlands several departments of the Nut were founded, mostly chaired by local politicians, lawyers and doctors.

Because of his work at the court and his active participation in the department of the Nut, he was a well-known member of the bourgeois elite of Friesland. In 1840, he was appointed as the first provincial archivist and started collecting documentary sources and old prints from different institutions in Friesland.

These activities eventually led to the opening of the Provincial Library of Friesland (Provinciale Bibliotheek van Friesland) in 1852. From 1850 on he was also the provincial librarian. The functions of archivist and librarian were both volunteer jobs executed in addition to his function at the court in Leeuwarden.

Nicolaas Swart (1779-1846) was the author of the commemoration book Historisch tafereel van den zwaren watersnood etc. It dealt with the 1825 flood in Noord-Holland. Swart was born in the Frisian town of Oostermeer and went to the Latin School in the city of

Franeker. He followed a similar professional path to other members of his family and enrolled as a student of medicine at the University of Groningen in 1796. He switched studies to theology, however, and joined the Remonstrant Church. He received training at the

Remonstrant seminary in Amsterdam and then served as a minister in the cities of Gouda and Leiden. From 1808 until his death, Swart held a position as a Remonstrant minister in

Amsterdam. He was a member of the national board of the Nut for a period of twenty-five years.

Swart published an extensive oeuvre on several subjects, including a study about the history of Amsterdam, although most works were on pedagogy.

He published his 1825 flood

22 W.W. Mijnhardt, Om het algemeen volksgeluk: twee eeuwen particulier initiatief 1784-1984 (Edam:

Maatschappij tot het Nut van ’t Algemeen, 1984).

23 Eekhof, “Levensberigt van Jacob van Leeuwen,“ Jaarboek van de Maatschappij der Letterdkunde (1858), 218, and ”Mr. J. van Leeuwen," Biographisch woordenboek der Noord- en Zuidnederlandsche letterkunde, eds.

Frederiks, J.G., and F. Jos. van den Branden, (Amsterdam: 1888-1891), no pagenumber,

http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/bran038biog01_01/bran038biog01_01_2466.php (as accessed on 4 April 2018.); J.

Frieswijk, J. Huizinga, L. Jansma, and Y. Kuiper. Geschiedenis van Friesland 1750-1995 (Amsterdam: Boom, 1998).

24 “Nicolaas Swart” in , Nieuw Nederlandsch biografisch woordenboek. Vol. 10, eds. P.C. Molhuysen and P.J.

Blok (Leiden: A.W. Sijthoff: 1937).

25 N. Swart, De oude van den Binnen-Amstel, of beschouwing van de zeden, gebruiken, enz. der hoofdstad

(Amsterdam: Beijerinck & Willemsz., 1819).

account during his time in Amsterdam. Swart’s personal ties with Noord-Holland explains his regional approach.

Johan Coenrad Beijer (1786-1866) published a commemoration book on the 1825 flood entitled Gedenkboek van Neerlands watersnood in Feburarij 1825 that covered all of the flooded territories around the Zuiderzee, particularly Holland and Gelderland. Very little information exists about his education and his choice of study is unknown.

He was born in Schiedam and started his career in Delft in 1814, where he became a lecturer at the recently established Artillery and Military Engineering School. Initially, he taught Dutch language and literature and later also geography. While in Delft, he found time to publish his account of the 1825 flood. When the school in Delft was closed in 1828 following the foundation of the new Royal Military Academy in Breda, Beijer moved to Breda and continued teaching there.

Unfortunately for him, formal complaints about his work as a lecturer were raised. Personal issues including an unhappy marriage and financial problems possibly contributed to his difficult situation. In July 1839, Beijer was forced to leave the academy. After his involuntary retirement, Beijer moved to The Hague where he lived the rest of his life. Apart from teaching and writing, Beijer was also active as a painter.

Beijer authored several schoolbooks during his lifetime, mostly concerning geography and the Dutch language.

In 1820, he published the Handleiding tot den Nederlandsen stijl.

Of Volledige Aanwijzing Ter Vervaardiging Van Schriftelijke Opstellen Voor Nederlanders, Zoo in Het Algemeen (Handbook of Dutch style). This was a successful publication, as testified by the multiple editions. Beijer wrote this book for his cadets at the Artillery and Military Engineering School in Delft, whose training included Dutch spelling, grammar, and literature. The book was intended to improve the rhetorical skills of his cadets. After the first sections on spelling and grammar, subsequent sections presented several types of speech and different rhetorical models of argumentation.

The book received praise from reviewers, so Beijer edited an abridged edition in 1823 for more general educational purposes.

Other books in Beijer’s oeuvre seem to have followed the same publishing sequence. In 1828, he

26 “Johannes Coenraad Beyer,” Biographisch portaal, http://www.biografischportaal.nl/persoon/32193084 (as accessed on 3 July 2017).

27 M.H.W. Aalders, Tussen kazerne en universiteit. De discussie over opvoeding en onderwijs aan de Koninklijke Militaire Academie te Breda in de negentiende eeuw (Nijmegen: GNI, 1997), 99-100.

28 “Johan Coenraad Beyer,” in Biographisch woordenboek der Noord- en Zuidnederlandsche letterkunde, eds.

J.G. Frederiks and F. Jos. van den Branden (Amsterdam: L.J. Veen,:1888-1891), 63-64.

29 J. Noordegraaf, “Tussen oordeel en formulering. Ontleding anno 1820,” in: Reisgidsen vol Belluno’s en blauwbaarden: opstellen over S. Vestdijk en anderen aangeboden aan Dr. H.A. Wage, ed. N. van Drunen (Leiden: Vakgroep Nederlandse Taal- & Letterkunde , 1976), 104-113.

30 Nieuwe bijdragen ter bevordering van het onderwijs en de opvoeding voornamelijk met betrekking tot de

lagere scholen in de Vereenigde Nederlanden voor den jare 1821, (Leiden: David du Mortier en zoon, 1830-

1873) 573: review.

published a book on geography aimed at students in military schools. After his retirement in the 1840s, Beijer published works on geography for more general educational purposes.

Beijer’s flood account had a broader geographic scope than those by Nicolaas Swart or Jacob van Leeuwen. He intended to write a survey of all territories impacted by the flood, although he devoted most of his attention to Holland and Gelderland. His wider orientation may be explained by a combination of facts and circumstances. He lived outside the flooded parts of the country, so his personal, emotional distance to the disaster was greater than in the two other cases. Also, he was the only professional lecturer working at an institute of higher education and he was trained in two relevant professional disciplines, Dutch language and geography. All of this may have given him a larger, more nationally orientated mental framework than the other two, who produced studies with a strong regional orientation.

Authors doing research

Beyond the personal backgrounds of Beijer, Swart, and Van Leeuwen, other characteristics of the authorship of the three commemoration books are of interest. How did the authors carry out their research? What sort of documents did they have and how did they acquire them? Did they also carry out research in person in an active way, for example by holding interviews with selected people or conducting on-site inspections?

The authors used several types of documents as sources of information. Newspaper articles were important, whether self-collected articles or otherwise. The collection of newspapers issued by the publisher Holtkamp from the Frisian town of Sneek, for instance, was an important source for both Swart and Beijer.

This first overview of the flood events was published in May 1825.

The anonymous editor had collected and summarised all the newspaper reports concerning the flood in Friesland in the months of February, March, and April 1825. At only 0.50 Dutch guilders, this booklet provided a cheap alternative compared to other commemoration books, which sold for between 2.50 and 4 Dutch guilders. The narratives in this booklet concentrated on heroic stories of rescue operations all over

Friesland. At the end of the booklet, the editor added a text on “the five best methods to purify the water and the flooded lands.” For a readership consisting of Frisian farmers whose clean water sources were polluted by the muddy and salty floodwater, this addendum would have provided practical advice for those who needed to drain floodwater as soon as possible. Both Swart and Beijer used the Holtkamp publication for the Frisian parts of their books. Beijer

31 Beijer, Gedenkboek, vii.

32 Anonymous, Beknopt verslag van Vrieslands watersnood in februarij 1825, benevens een aanhangsel,

middelen aanwijzende ter verbetering van bedorven water en overstroomd land (Sneek: F. Holtkamp, 1825).

stated in his introduction that, among others, Holtkamp’s information helped him to speed up the research and publish more quickly.

To his great frustration Beijer did not receive the official government sources and reports that he hoped to use prior to publication.

Subscription lists for the commemoration books also indicate the three authors intended to reference each other’s books. These lists consisted of names of people who had ordered the book in advance.

Swart is on the subscription list for Van Leeuwen’s book. Both Van Leeuwen and Swart are found on the subscription list for Beijer’s work. The authors probably wanted to use the publications of the other authors for their own purposes. However, this strategy proved to be unsuccessful since Swart’s book was published earlier than Van Leeuwen’s work and Beijer’s book only came out a year after the others. They also collected information from failed and unpublished books. In his introduction, Beijer states that he received sources on the flood from Portielje and Allart, who had collected these reports, but had not used them to publish commemoration books.

Gerrit Portielje, a publisher located in Amsterdam, announced a publication about the floods in Noord-Holland, under the title Noord-Hollandsch Waternood on 10 February 1825 in the Haarlem newspaper, the Opregte Haarlemsche Courant. The Weduwe Allart was a publisher in Leeuwarden.

So the authors had access to a diversity of documents as sources of information, but primarily newspapers.

One might expect that the authors would also refer to historical surveys of floods and commemoration books of older floods to place the 1825 flood in historical perspective. For instance, the recent flood survey by N. Muyt might have provided useful historical context.

However, this book is not quoted by any of the authors.

Rather, the three authors referenced older commemoration books. For example, Swart mentions J. Hering’s Bespiegeling over Neêrlandsch waternood in his introduction. The book covered the 1775 and 1776 floods in the

33 Swart, Historisch tafereel, viii, 266-304.

34 The subscription list was a marketing tool for publishers to show that renowned members of the local government, nobility or even members of the royal family purchased a specific book. The subscription list also presented an opportunity to position one’s name among those of well-known citizens. In this specific case, the subscriber would find his name on a list presenting people who were willing to spend money for the relief of flood victims.

35 Beijer, Gedenkboek, iii.

36 Allart’s collection of sources may have been related to the initiative by the Frisian reverend H.W.C.A. Visser, who passed away before he could finish his book on the flood, according to advertisements in the Frisian newspaper, the Leeuwarder Courant of 18 and 22 February 1825.

37 N. Muyt, Geschied- en aardrijkskundige beschrijving van het Koningrijk der Nederlanden, benevens de

geschiedenis der watervloeden en overstroomingen in hetzelve, aanvang nemende met den Cimbrischen of

Kimberschen vloed tot op den tegenwoordigen tijd [Historical- and geographical description of the Kingdom of

the Netherlands, including the history of floods and inundations therein, beginning with the Cymbrian flood,

until the present] (Zaltbommel: Johannes Noman, 1824).

Zuiderzee area, focusing on the city of Amsterdam.

As chief editor, Hering collected information on these events through the regular communication channels of the Amsterdam newspaper the Amsterdamsche Courant. Swart explicitly condemned Hering’s book for its tastelessness and injudiciousness, but he used the second part of the work containing the sources.

Official reports from public authorities formed an important potential source of information for the authors as well, but access to this official documentation was not guaranteed. The national Department of Water Management, for example, had begun a tradition of compiling reports on floods. The oldest know examples are reports concerning the storms of 1806 and 1808.

In his introduction, Beijer claims that he expected to receive official reports on the flood events from this Department, but apparently this never happened.

Beijer remains rather vague and does not inform the reader why he did not get access to (all) sources.

In addition to written documentation, authors sought first-hand information. Refugees provided one important source of information. In 1825, Swart actually observed refugees pouring into his city as they were crossing the IJ from Waterland to Amsterdam.

Van Leeuwen, who resided in Leeuwarden, may have had a similar experience. Although his hometown was not flooded, the city housed refugees from the flooded parts of Friesland.

Whether or not they actually spoke with these people is not stated in the books, but it seems very likely considering the circumstances and Van Leeuwen’s interests.

Of the three authors, only Van Leeuwen travelled through the flooded area of

Friesland. He did not undertake his travels immediately after the flood in February. Rather, he waited until May, probably because travel conditions improved, as they did every year. In winter, rainwater flooded most low-lying polders and many minor roads. Drier conditions in the spring and the employment of windmills helped to drain the lands of this excess water.

Van Leeuwen acquired first-hand accounts from victims and other witnesses, and produced descriptions of what he could observe from the areas still flooded in May. The book contains several traces of his research, such as his observations of the low-lying lands near the city of 38 J.H. Hering, Bespiegeling over Neêrlandsch waternood, tusschen den 14den en 15den nov. MDCCLXXV. 2 vols. (Amsterdam: Lovering & Allart, 1776).

39 Swart, Historisch tafereel, vii.

40 The Hague, National Archive, Inspecteurs Waterstaat vóór 1850, finding aid 2.16.06, inventory number 232.

41 Beijer, Gedenkboek, i-vii. In The Hague, National Archive, Department of Water Management no traces have been found of any correspondence between Beijer and the Department.

42 Swart, Historisch tafereel, 84.

43 Van Leeuwen, Geschiedkundig tafereel, 61.

Lemmer that should be filled with grazing cattle during this time of year. Instead, Van Leeuwen observed the grasslands covered with crusts or black mud.

In summary, the authors used several kinds of documents, including newspaper articles, accounts of earlier floods, documentation collected for unpublished commemoration books, and books on the flood by authors who happened to publish earlier. The two authors who had a more regional approach for their books, Swart and Van Leeuwen, had the

opportunity to meet refugees and collect personal accounts. Yet only Van Leeuwen conducted research in the region outside his town of residence, so he seems to have spent more energy on his research.

Evaluating the research methods of the authors, one may conclude that the use of several differing sets of written documentation probably contributed to the quality of their studies, as did their critical selection of the sources. This reinforces the status of the authors as professional writers. Yet, the relatively small amount of first-hand accounts and personal experience with the flooded areas, outside those where the authors happened to live, is remarkable. We presume that the need to publish soon after the disaster took place was great and maybe the high costs of time-consuming traveling also formed an impediment for research expeditions.

Disaster narratives

In reporting on the devastating impacts of the flood, each of the authors constructed narratives to frame and explain the disasters. All three authors imparted specific meanings to the flood that could be transcendental, be it religious or not, or scientifically grounded. We consider two motives of the narratives, Gods intentions with regard to the flood and its causes, and stories about miracles, heroes and public authorities.

The religious significance of the Zuiderzee flood was considerable. Several religious arguments can be distinguished in the discussions. The providential interpretation of the flood as a punishment of God had survived since the middle ages, but was no longer dominant by the nineteenth century and received little attention in the commemoration books. The English reverend A.S. Thelwall (1795-1863), who happened to live in the area prone to flooding in 1825, was the lone proponent of this interpretation. He was involved in the Dutch Reveil Movement that propagated a revival of Christian values.

Thelwall interpreted the flood as the judgement of God for the sins of the Dutch people. One of the sins was the perception of

44 Van Leeuwen, Geschiedkundig tafereel, 278.

flood as caused by natural causes.

Swart gave a response in a sermon.

He argued against the flood as a divine punishment. If the flood really was a punishment, God would have considered who in particular would deserve this. In other words, among the victims there should be a distinction between the sinners and the virtuous. The flood struck everyone, however, so it was not a punishment. Beijer agreed with this argumentation and added that one should not be so arrogant to think that one could understand God’s intentions.

Van Leeuwen seemed not to address this issue directly. None of the authors adhere to the traditional religious view on this issue.

The 1825 books reveal several new views on the meaning of floods, which one may interpret as Enlightened: More emphasize on how the disaster offered the people the

opportunity to help each other, i.e. the new humanistic ideal, rather than on how the disaster was or was not a token of Gods wrath, i.e. the providential interpretation. Disasters, according to this important strand of religious discourse, were opportunities to strengthen religious virtue and practice Christian charity. In his book Swart presented the argument, that, although we lost in the material sense, we have gained in the immaterial, helping each other, adding:

“we see that the main command of Christianity shines brilliantly in this disaster.”

Beijer spoke of individuals who were enemies before the flood, but after the flood they turned to each other, helped each other and prayed together for peace with God and nature.

Van Leeuwen likewise offered several examples of human kindness and the way individuals helped each other. A pregnant woman was saved by her neighbours and gave birth to a child on the boat that saved her.

Another Enlightened religious strand is the idea that the flood showed God’s mercy.

Considering nature’s power and the potential for greater destruction, if God had not protected 45 A.S. Thelwall, Keert u tot Hem die slaat. Eene Christelijke Opwekking aan de Nederlandsers; bij

gelegenheid van de tegenwoordige overstroomingen/ na honderd jaar opnieuw uitgegeven en van een historische toelichting voorzien door J.C. Rullman. (Amsterdam: P. den Hengst & Zoon, 1825).

46 A. Kagchelland and M. Kagchelland, Van dompers en verlichten. Een onderzoek naar de confrontatie tussen het vroege protestantse Réveil en de Verlichting in Nederland (1815-1826) (Leiden: Eburon, 2009), 589-665;

cp.: F. van Lieburg, Opwekking van de natie: het protestantse Réveil in Nederland ( Hilversum:Verloren, 2012).

.

47 N. Swart, “Mengelwerk. Leerrede over het ongepaste der bepaling van Gods oogmerken, wanneer hij een volk met rampen bezoekt, en het Christelijk gebruik, van de nu onlangs bij ons geledene, tot stichting en troost, te maken,” Vaderlandsche letteroefeningen (1825): 201-215.

48 Beijer, Gedenkboek, 213-214.

49 Swart, Historisch tafereel, iii: ‘Het hoofgebod van het Christendom zien wij in deze ramp heerlijk uitblinken,’

Swart , Historisch tafereel, 18.

50 Beijer, Gedenkboek, 33.

51 Van Leeuwen, Geschiedkundig tafereel,78.

his nation there would have been far more victims.

Beijer provides numerous examples to support this view in his commemoration book. The people of the village of Katwoude in Noord-Holland, for instance, thanked God for saving the sea dike protecting their village.

Further north, thanks to God and their own tireless efforts, the people of the town of Enkhuizen prevented their city from total devastation.

In both the cities of Enkhuizen and Medemblik, God weakened the strong winds so the cities survived.

This argument could also be connected to the previous argument of religious virtues and Christian charity. Those people spared the greatest devastation have even more motivation to help the victims.

According to Beijer, because God had saved the inhabitants of Amsterdam, they felt greater duty to help less fortunate fellow citizens in Waterland.

The same principle applied to the inhabitants of the town of Monnickendam who housed refugees from Waterland and thanked God for being used as His tool to do so.

By saving people, God gave them the opportunity to practice their Christian virtues. This argument about God’s mercy is an example of

Enlightened religious ideas. Van Leeuwen likewise provided several comparable examples and lines of reasoning in his commemoration book. People who survived a flood were able to perform miracles afterwards, in the sense that God gave them the strength to do so.

Beyond their religious meaning, floods also served as opportunities to promote other Enlightenment views, including rational explanations for disasters. In his introduction, Van Leeuwen explains that over the last few centuries land had gradually disappeared. In

particular, the stretches of land situated outside the main dikes that formed an extra protective barrier against the waves had been eroded. Furthermore, the flood occurred in combination with spring tide and the two months before the actual flood were stormy.

He compares these kinds of rational explanations of the flood and its consequences with less rational explanations that are apparently not to be believed, such as the popular story that the flood had been caused by an earthquake. There were no earthquakes as he states, but people heard noises and even felt tremblings. These were caused by the large stones in the cover of the dikes that were loosened by the flood. The supposed earthquake was not felt in Friesland but was felt in the other provinces. Also, Swart reports that earthquakes and strange water movements were seen

52 Beijer, Gedenkboek, 55.

53 Beijer, Gedenkboek, 379.

54 Beijer, Gedenkboek, 400.

55 Beijer, Gedenkboek, 411.

56 Beijer, Gedenkboek, 269.

57 Beijer, Gedenkboek, 320.

58 Van Leeuwen, Geschiedkundig tafereel, 186.

59 Van Leeuwen, Geschiedkundig tafereel, lix, 4.

by some.

Concerning warnings for floods the authors favoured natural events rather than divine signals. Van Leeuwen states that the weather is the best indicator for an upcoming flood.

Although authors of commemoration books favoured rational and natural causes as explanatory factors for flooding rather than divine causation, this reasoning did not disregard God entirely. Behind their narrative the Enlighted view stands that God is responsible for the Creation, including natural disasters, the first cause, so to say. However, the reasoning relegated God to a secondary causal factor for the flood. This mental attitude was the result of a long-term mental development, as we explained in the introduction by referring to the studies of M.-L. Allemeyer and others.

Stories of miracles and heroic rescues would seem to fit awkwardly into

commemoration books that privilege rational, natural disaster causation. Miracles occur as an act of “special providence” when God suspended the ordinary functioning of nature. The disaster narratives of the 1825 flood contain great stories about miracles and heroes. What positions do authors take towards such stories and in particular how do they describe the reactions of science and public authorities to the stories? Fortunately, newspapers published independent accounts of these miraculous events. On 18 March 1825, a short article in the Leeuwarder Courant reported on a fresh water well found on a small floating peat island in the flooded village of Munnekeburen. It provided enough water to keep everyone alive until they were saved.

M. van Marum (1750-1837), the secretary of the Holland scholarly society (Hollandse Maatschappij der Wetenschappen) likely read this article and sent a letter to J.G.

Verstolk van Stoelen, special Commissioner of the King in Friesland. A small committee investigated the miracle and concluded that the story of the well was part of the superstitious beliefs of people during dangerous confrontations with disasters.

The report on the

miraculous well issued by the Hollandse Maatschappij der Wetenschappen in 1825, was integrated as an appendix by Van Leeuwen to his account of the flood of 1825.

He reported on the commission of enquiry and referred to a much inflated “urban legend” about the well

60 Swart, Historisch tafereel, 30.

61 Van Leeuwen, Geschiedkundig tafereel, 4-7.

62 Leeuwarder Courant, 18 March 1825.

63 Leeuwarden, Tresoar, Archive Provinciaal Bestuur Friesland, inventory number 3904 (1825). Although the well of Munnekeburen was demystified by the scientific report, this does not necessarily imply that the narrative of this report became dominant over the initial narrative. In late nineteenth-century travel books on Friesland one can find the story of this miracle without the scientific explanation, cp. J. Hepkema, Historische wandelingen door Friesland 1894-1917: Eenvoudige Memoires en Bemerkingen langs straten en wegen voor Landgenoot en Vreemdeling (Leeuwarden: De Tille, 1970), 530-31.

64 Van Leeuwen, Geschiedkundig tafereel, Appendix B, 104.

published in the newspaper the Leeuwarder Courant. Importantly, Van Leeuwen dismissed the story and chose the more scholarly, Enlightened position towards the miracle, relying on scientific investigation.

Another great story deals with the hero Harmen Jans Groen, a fisherman from the small town of Vierhuis in the province of Friesland, who saved fifty people in his home town with his small boat.

The story of Groen was doubted from the start, some eyewitnesses even claimed that Groen only wanted to save himself.

The authorities quickly chose to defend the narrative of Groen as a hero and the Nut department in the Frisian capital of Leeuwarden started to collect money to support him. They investigated the rumours and complaints about Groen and in their report, written by department member C. Robidé van der Aa, they

supported Groen’s narrative.

According to Van Leeuwen, the commission in Leeuwarden received around 2000 guilders explicitly donated for Groen. The king bestowed a silver tobacco box on Groen and an unknown lady from Rotterdam donated a golden ring.

Van Leeuwen mentions the Groen controversy, but does not take a strong position in this debate. He simply refers to the pamphlet by Robidé van der Aa reproducing his findings.

Nevertheless, Van Leeuwen feels that the controversy has prevented other heroes or heroic stories from coming forward. The names of these unknown heroes have already disappeared because of that as he writes.

Beijer celebrates the story by putting an engraving showing Groen in action at the frontispiece of his book and presenting the story in the same way as the other authors.

Yet another heroic story is that of the College Zeemanshoop. It was a kind of workers union for seamen, founded in 1822.

During the flood, the shippers of this union had been very active in rescuing people from the flooded lands across the IJ River, north of

Amsterdam. Captain Pakes and three others from the College Zeemanshoop received a medal from the King.

Swarts not only recounts this heroic story, he even dedicates his book to the

65 Beijer, Gedenkboek, 686.

66 De Jong, Tusken Tsjûkemar, 31-32.

67 C.P.E. Robidé van der Aa, Hulde aan Harmen Jans Groen, visscher te Vierhuis (Leeuwarden: G.T.N.

Suringar, 1825).

68 Van Leeuwen, Geschiedkundig tafereel, 214.

69 Van Leeuwen, Geschiedkundig tafereel, 128.

70 Beijer, Gedenkboek, 686.

71 College Zeemanshoop still exists, its office is in Amsterdam and it has developed several cultural and educational goals: www.zeemanshoop.nl (as accessed on 18 August 2017).

72 Swart, Historisch tafereel, iv.

College Zeemanshoop. In the introduction, he compares the heroic acts by the College with the heroic acts of the Prince of Orange during the Battle of Waterloo.

The third kind of motive we investigate is the role of public authorities and the Royal Family. Swart glorifies the roles of the mayor of Amsterdam, the governor of Noord-Holland, and the Prince of Orange. The mayor of Amsterdam, D.W. Elias (1758-1828), coordinated the rescue operations from the city. Elias organized the housing of refugees from Noord-Holland within the city of Amsterdam and took some supplementary measures, like ordering the bakeries in the city to produce more bread for the refugees. On 5 February, the governor of Noord-Holland, A.W.N. van Tets van Goudriaan (1771-1837) arrived in Amsterdam and crossed the IJ River to see the flooded lands himself. He stayed in Amsterdam for several days to coordinate rescue operations and to plan reparation of the broken dike section near Durgerdam. The Prince of Orange, the later King Willem II (reigned 1840-49), visited Amsterdam on 13 and 14 February 1825. His stay in the capital included visits to the flood refugees. On one of these occasions, the prince became the Godfather for a child who was about to be born.

Beijer reinforces the stories as presented by Swart. He praises the mayor of

Amsterdam because the city had prepared well for such a disaster. He credits the governor of Noord-Holland for visiting the flooded areas already on the second day of the flood. Beijer admires his decisiveness.

In addition, King William I (reigned1814/15-1840) is prominent in the text, namely in the passages where Beijer summarizes the money collected for the victims.

Here he incorporates a number of Royal Decrees issued by the king concerning the national collection of money and the recovery of dikes and other infrastructure.

Van Leeuwen provides a similar story for Friesland. He comments very positively on the special

commissioner sent to Friesland by the King after the flood. He praises this commissioner, Baron J.G. Verstolk van Stoelen (1776-1845), for his resolute policies to quickly repair the dikes.

In each of these narratives, the authors shared what may be called an Enlightened approach. Curious stories were not taken for granted, but submitted to thorough investigation

73 Swart, Historisch tafereel, i-ii.

74 The Prince visited the Nieuwezijds Heeren Logement [The Lords Hotel at the Nieuwezijds Canal], the barracks of Oranje Nassau and the Aalmoezeniershuis [Almoners orphanage]. Van Leeuwen, Geschiedkundig tafereel, 226-228; B. Wouda, Watervluchtelingen verzord en verguisd. Hulpverlening in Bunschoten, Eemdijk en Spakenburg na de overstroming van Eemland in 1916 (Spakenburg: Bertus Wouda, 2016), 69-81.

75 That may have been the start of a long tradition of royal adoptions at such occasions, Beijer, Gedenkboek, 266-278, 304; cp. Wouda, Watervluchtelingen, 77.

76 Beijer, Gedenkboek, 740-749.

77 Van Leeuwen, Geschiedkundig tafereel, 222-225.

and, in the absence of evidence, eventually discounted. Yet, the authors also promoted other

stories, in particular heroic tales like those of Groen or the College Zeemanshoop. These

stories served the important function of portraying examples of good behaviour. The same

applies to accounts of public functionaries. The mayor, the governor, the commissioner, the

Prince, and the King behaved responsibly, they showed concern for the people, they acted

swiftly and they took effective measures. The stories reinforce the Enlightened view that

people must act selflesslessy for the public good.

Summary and conclusion

In the context of their personal lives and in their scholarship, the authors of the investigated three commemoration books of the Zuiderzee Flood of 1825 all showed traits of typical well- educated nineteenth-century bourgeois men, adhering to Enlightened norms and values. They held prominent positions within Dutch society. Nicolaas Swart was a minister, Johan Beijer a lecturer, and Jacob van Leeuwen a court registrar. Van Leeuwen pursued intellectual hobbies in addition to his job. The other two were board members of the Society for Public Welfare, the Nut (Maatschappij tot Nut van ‘t Algemeen), which was the embodiment of progressive Enlightened values. All three were trained writers, but in all cases the commemoration book was not typical of the oeuvre of the author. None had any prior experience in flood

description and only Swart had some experience with writing a historical study. Rather than attempts at professional scholarship, flood commemoration books may be seen as an

intellectual pastime fitting the Enlightened bourgeois lifestyle.

The authors’ narrative choices reveal their Enlightened positions and attitudes. They adhered to the more Enlightened religious view of the merciful God acting only at a distance.

They explained that floods were the result of natural phenomena and not providential expressions of divine wrath. The authors criticized the most fanciful stories and grounded their critiques in scientific research. Yet, they included some stories, in particular stories of heroism and virtuous governance, because they promoted virtuous citizenship.

The main moral message of the commemoration books is that people must help each

other. The religious version of this message is that God has created a universe which includes

natural disasters like floods, in order to give people the opportunity to do so. In this way

commemoration books contributed to the creation of Enlightened flood memories in the

Netherlands. Disaster is, according to the authors, a chance, a most optimistic stance, befitting

the bourgeois elite who was in control of the (natural) world.

Bibliography

Aa, C.P.E., Robidé van der. Hulde aan Harmen Jans Groen, visscher te Vierhuis.

Leeuwarden: G.T.N. Suringar, 1825.

Aalders, M.H.W. Tussen kazerne en universiteit: De discussie over opvoeding en onderwijs aan de Koninklijke Militaire Academie te Breda in de negentiende eeuw. Nijmegen: GNI, 1997.

Allemeyer, M.L. Kein Land ohne Deich…! Lebenswelten einer Küstengesellschaft in der Frühen Neuzeit. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2006.

Anonymous, Beknopt verslag van Vrieslands watersnood, in februarij 1825; benevens een aanhangsel, middelen aanwijzende ter verbetering van bedorven water en overstroomd land. Sneek: F. Holtkamp, 1825.

Bankoff, G. “The ‘English Lowlands’ and the North Sea Basin System: A History of Shared Risk.” Environment and History 19 (2013): 3-37.

Beijer, J.C. Gedenkboek van Neerlands watersnood in Feburarij 1825. The Hague: J.

Immerzeel Jr., 1826.Boomsma, G.T., and P.J.E.M. van Dam. “‘Voor de ongelukkigen van de watersnood’:

Boomsma, G.R., and P.J.E.M. van Dam, “ ‘Voor de ongelukkigen van de watersnood’ ” Historisch onderzoek naar de donormotieven bij watersnoden in de negentiende eeuw.” Tijdschrift voor Waterstaatsgeschiedenis 24, no. 2 (2015): 24-37.

Bosch, T. “Natuur en cultuur: Modernisering van hulpverlening na catastrofale overstromingen in de Nederlandse Delta, 1740-1861.” Tijdschrift voor Waterstaatsgeschiedenis 21, no. 1-2 (2012): 39-47.

Bosch, T. “Nijmegen en zijn ‘gryze stroomgod’. Hoog water, strenge vorst en calamiteuze watersnoden 1781-1861.” Jaarboek Numaga 56 (2009): 33-53.

Branden, F. Jos van den, and J.G. Frederiks. Biographisch woordenboek der Noord- en Zuidnederlandsche letterkunde. Amsterdam: L.J. Veen, 1888-1891.

Buisman, J. W. Tussen vroomheid en Verlichting: Een cultuurhistorisch en –sociologisch onderzoek naar enkele aspecten van de Verlichting in Nederland 1755-1810. Vleuten: J. W.

Buisman, 1992.

Dam, P.J.E.M. van. “An Amphibious Culture: Coping with floods in the Netherlands,” In

Local Places, Global Processes: Histories of Environmental Change in Britain and Beyond, edited by P. Coates, D. Moon and P. Warde, 78-93. Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2016.

Eekhoff, W. “Levensberigt van Jacob van Leeuwen.” Jaarboek van de Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde (1858): 218-242,

http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/_jaa002185801_01/_jaa002185801_01_0028.php#172.

Esser, R., and M. Meijer Drees. “Coping with crisis: an introduction.” Dutch Crossing 40 (2016): 93-96.

Frederiks, J.G., and F. Jos. van den Branden, Biographisch woordenboek der Noord- en Zuidnederlandsche letterkunde (Amsterdam: 1888-1891).

Frieswijk, J., J. Huizinga, L. Jansma, and Y. Kuiper. Geschiedenis van Friesland 1750-1995.

Amsterdam: Boom, 1998.

Gabbema, S.A. Nederlandsche Watervloeden, of nauwkeurige beschrijvingen van alle watervloeden voorgevallen ... nabuirige landen. No place: 1703.

Gottschalk, M.K.E. Stormvloeden en rivieroverstromingen in Nederland 1400-1700 [with summaries in English per year] Assen: Van Gorcum & Comp, 1971-1977.

Hepkema, J. Historische wandelingen door Friesland 1894-1917: Eenvoudige Memoires en Bemerkingen langs straten en wegen voor Landgenoot en Vreemdeling. Leeuwarden: De Tille, 1970.

Hering, J.H. Bespiegeling over Neêrlandsch waternood, tusschen den 14den en 15den nov.

MDCCLXXV. Amsterdam: Lovering & Allart, 1776.

Jong, A. de. Tusken Tsjûkemar en it Nannewiid: geschiedenis van de dorpen Rohel, Rotsterhaule en Sint Johannesga. Joure: Werkgroep Historie Sint Johannesga, 1996.

Kagchelland, A., and M. Kagchelland. Van dompers en verlichten: een onderzoek naar de confrontatie tussen het vroege protestantse Réveil en de Verlichting in Nederland 1815- 1826. Leiden: Eburon, 2009.

Kempe, Michael. “‘Mind the Next Flood!’ Memories of Natural Disasters in Northern

Germany from the Sixteenth Century to the Present.” The Medieval History Journal 10, no.

1&2 (2007): 327-354.

Leeuwen, J. van. Geschiedkundig Tafereel van den Watervloed en de Overstroomingen in de

provincie Vriesland; voorgevallen in sprokkelmaand 1825, met eene beschrijving van

derzelver gevolgen voor dat gewest. Leeuwarden: G. T. N. Suringar, 1826.

Lieburg, F. van. Opwekking van de natie: het protestantse Réveil in Nederland. Hilversum:

Verloren, 2012.

Malde, J. van. Historische stormvloedstanden. Delft: Rijkswaterstaat, Rijksinstituut voor Kust en Zee, 2003.

Mauelshagen, F. “Disaster and Political Culture in Germany since 1500.” In Natural

disasters, cultural responses, edited by C. Mauch and C. Pfister, 41-75. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2009.

P.C. Molhuysen and P.J. Blok, eds. Nieuw Nederlandsch biografisch woordenboek: Volume 10 . Leiden: A.W. Sijthoff, 1937.

Muyt, N. Geschied- en aardrijkskundige beschrijving van het Koningrijk der Nederlanden, benevens de geschiedenis der watervloeden en overstroomingen in hetzelve, aanvang nemende met den Cimbrischen of Kimberschen vloed tot op den tegenwoordigen tijd (Zaltbommel: Johannes Noman,1824

Mijnhardt, W.W. And A. J. Wichers. Om het algemeen volksgeluk. Twee eeuwen

particulier initiatief 1784-1984. Edam: Maatschappij tot het Nut van ’t Algemeen, 1984.

Nieuwe bijdragen ter bevordering van het onderwijs en de opvoeding voornamelijk met betrekking tot de lagere scholen in de Vereenigde Nederlanden voor den jare 1821 Leiden:

David Du Mortier en zoon, 1830-1873.

Noordegraaf, J. “Tussen oordeel en formulering. Ontleding anno 1820.” In Reisgidsen vol Belluno's en blauwbaarden: opstellen over S. Vestdijk en anderen aangeboden aan Dr.

H.A. Wage, edited by N. van Drunen, 104-113. Leiden: Vakgroep Nederlandse Taal &

Letterkunde, 1976.

Pieters, H.D. “Herinneringscultuur van overstromingsrampen. Gedenkboeken van overstromingen van 1775, 1776 en 1825 in het Zuiderzeegebied.” Tijdschrift voor Waterstaatsgeschiedenis 21, no. 1/2 (2012): 58-68.

Poliwoda, G. Aus Katastrophen lernen: Sachsen im Kampf gegen die Fluten der Elbe 1784 bis 1845. Coulogne/Weimar/Vienna: Böhlau, 2007.

Rohr, C. Extreme Naturereignisse im Ostalpenraum: Naturerfahrung im Spätmittelalter und am Beginn der Neuzeit. Coulogne/Weimar/Vienna: Böhlau, 2007.

Soetaert, A. “‘Pour servir de mémoire à la postérité’, Herinneringscultuur en overstromingen in het vroegmoderne Namen.” Tijdschrift voor Waterstaatsgeschiedenis 22, no. 2 (2013):

45-56.

Sundberg, A. “Claiming the Past: History, Memory, and Innovation following the Christmas

Flood of 1717.” Environmental History 20, no. 2 (2015): 238-261.

Swart, N. De oude van den Binnen-Amstel, of beschouwing van de zeden, gebruiken, enz. Der Hoofdstad. Amsterdam: Beijerinck & Willemsz., 1819.

Swart, N. Historisch Tafereel van den zwaren Watersnood, op den 3den 4den en 5den Februarij 1825, een groot Deel van ons Vaderland hebbende getroffen. Amsterdam:

Schalekamp & Van de Grampel, 1826.

Swart, N. “Mengelwerk. Leerrede over het ongepaste der bepaling van Gods oogmerken, wanneer hij een volk met rampen bezoekt, en het Christelijk gebruik, van de nu onlangs bij ons geledene, tot stichting en troost, te maken,” Vaderlandsche letteroefeningen (1825):

201-215.

Thelwall, A.S. Keert u tot Hem die slaat. Eene Christelijke Opwekking aan de

Nederlanders; bij gelegenheid van de tegenwoordige overstroomingen/ na honderd jaar opnieuw uitgegeven en van een historische toelichting voorzien door J.C. Rullmann.

Amsterdam: P. den Hengst & Zoon, 1825.

Wieringa, F. Watersnood in Waterland: de ramp van 1825. Purmerend: Vrienden van de Hondsbossche, 2010.

Wouda, Bertus. Watervluchtelingen verzorgd én verguisd. Hulpverlening in Bunschoten, Eemdijk en Spakenburg na de overstroming van Eemland in 1916. Spakenburg: Bertus Wouda, 2016.

Zeiler, F.D. “1825: de ‘vergeten’ watersnood.” Tijdschrift voor Waterstaatsgeschiedenis 16, no. 1 (2007): 19-26.

Zeiler, F.D. “Ter Pelkwijk en het ‘vaderlandsch gevoel.” In Overijssels watersnood. Een heruitgave van het verslag van de ramp van 1825, edited by J. ter Pelkwijk, VI-XXII. Zwolle:

Stichting IJsselacademie, 2002.

Archives

Archive Provinciaal Bestuur Friesland, Tresoar Leeuwarden, finding aid 11.

Archive Staatssecretarie, National Archive The Hague, finding aid 2.02.01.

Inspecteurs Waterstaat vóór 1850, National Archive The Hague, finding aid 2.16.06.

Websites

www.biografischportaal.nl

www.dbnl.org

www.historici.nl/Onderzoek/Projecten/Repertorium www. Delpher.nl.kranten

www.zeemanshoop.nl