UvA buildings | Museum Vrolik: From tiger cubs to slices of brain
The myth of a corpse repository under IWO exam rooms may have been frequently debunked, but fans of a good story can take heart from the extraordinary collection of the Vrolik Anatomy Museum, located at the Amsterdam UMC. “Samples with congenital abnormalities were considered ‘too gruesome.’”
“Very worthwhile for people from the medical field, or anyone with an interest in anatomy or a morbid fascination,” reads one of the (mostly glowing) reviews on Museum Vrolik’s Google page. “Not suitable for those who are squeamish or have a weak stomach.”
That description hits the nail on the head. Museum Vrolik, located at Meibergdreef 15 and thus a stone’s throw from the Amsterdam UMC and the IWO lecture halls, has about 25,000 objects that offer (not always cheerful) historical insight into the bodies of humans and animals. The objects were collected between 1750 and 1950. Among the roughly 2,000 objects on display - mostly in jars of alcohol - are slices of brains, crooked backbones, syphilis-infected skulls, lambs with cyclopia, organs, fetuses in wombs, and an 18th-century collection of bone diseases and Siamese twins. Also special: a liver which clearly shows that the corset worn by its female owner was too tight.
UvA medical students receive free admission; other students pay €5. Amsterdam UMC employees can enter for free upon presentation of staff badge, and patients can enter by just showing their wristband. Other adults pay €10. Booking or buying tickets in advance is not possible. Guided tours must be requested at least two weeks in advance. Museum Vrolik is located in the Amsterdam UMC on Meibergdreef 15. The museum is open Monday through Friday from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Not objects you might want to keep in the attic, but the anatomy professors Gerard Vrolik (1775-1859) and son Willem Vrolik (1801-1863) thought otherwise. This has to do with the spirit of the times. In earlier centuries, for example, the anatomical dissection of human beings was a veritable public event, wrote emeritus professor Antoon Moorman and current director of Museum Vrolik Laurens de Rooy in an article in the Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde. This included the anatomy lesson, in which doctors publicly cut open a hanged man and showed the organs to an attentive audience. Anatomists also created private collections of such things as children’s heads and newborns, sometimes for learning purposes, and sometimes for artistic purposes.
Tiger cubs
The anatomical laboratory of father and son Vrolik, laid out in their mansion on the Amstel, contained parts of humans and animals, pathological anatomy, and bone material of colonial origin, according to Moorman and De Rooy. For example, they possessed human skulls, monkey skeletons, and tiger cubs preserved in alcohol. Students and scientists took great interest in the collection, which had a scientific and educational purpose rather than an artistic one. Over the years (mainly the 18th and 19th centuries), other scientists also added objects such as animal brains, plant preparations, and plaster casts of dental abnormalities.
It all forms the basis for the current collection of Museum Vrolik. When the collection moved to the AMC in 1984 - before that it was owned by the Athenaum Illustre, the predecessor of the UvA, and before that a group of wealthy Amsterdammers had the right of ownership - not all of the objects passed muster. “Ninety percent of the collection disappeared into storage. This included the specimens with congenital abnormalities, which were considered too gruesome,” Moorman and De Rooy said. The collection of “human parts in jars” served as an addition to academic teaching.
In 1993, the decision was made to put the specimens with congenital abnormalities back in place, causing interest to grow, and with it, later, the realization “that this was our academic heritage.” The layout of the museum has changed several times. Now the objects are moodily lit in a dark room, partly to prevent light damage to specimens and partly to break with the clinical atmosphere of the hospital.
Racist
Together with the growing interest in 2020, discussion also arose about the museum’s namesakes. Father Vrolik, for example, turned out not to have such kosher views about people of color. In his writings, he described them as “animalistic” and called white people “superior,” among other things. His son appeared to hold similar views. The debate mainly concerned racial research with human remains the men had collected from the former Dutch colonies, especially the Dutch East Indies. At the same time, critical voices sounded about Amsterdam’s Vrolikstraat. Vrije Universität researcher Dienke Hondius commented on it in Het Parool: “I always thought it was a nice name, but I look at it differently now. It can’t hurt to add an extra line to the street sign.”
Racist concepts, however, must be seen in the context of their time, director De Rooy said earlier in Folia. “Many nineteenth-century naturalists had racist ideas. It was the era of slavery, colonialism, and the belief in white (European) superiority. De Rooy also said he was not in favor of changing the museum’s name. Instead, the museum posted a detailed explanation of the issue on its website. “In context, we understand that on the one hand, no one ever quite represented ‘the good’ in everything and that through time, views of what is good or reprehensible can change. Through the name, we also learn to see the importance of history.” With that, it seems that even the very woke UvA students can enter the museum with confidence.
