The Koninklijke Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen (Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities), located on the east side of the Spaarne in downtown Haarlem, Netherlands, was established in 1752 and is the oldest society for the sciences in the country. The society has been housed in its present location, called Hodshon Huis, since 1841. Nearby the society is the Teylers Museum, a closely related museum of natural history founded in 1784. In 2002, the society was awarded the predicate "Royal" when it celebrated 250 years of science studies.
The society started as a gentleman's club that met in the Haarlem City Hall to discuss science topics and promote the study of the arts and sciences. They pooled resources to purchase books and specimens for study, which were kept in the town hall until they purchased a building on the Grote Houtstraat (nr. 51, since unrecognizably rebuilt), where the curator of the collection lived. Under the direction of Martin van Marum, a proper museum was established with zoological specimens located there on display for the public, as a forerunner of the modern Naturalis in Leiden. [1] Van Marum also kept a small garden for public viewing in the summer months, filled with special plants, located in the Bakkerstraat. The museum fell out of favor after Van Marum's death, and it was dissolved in 1866.
The house was built in 1794 by the architect Abraham van der Hart for Catharina Cornelia Hodshon, a wealthy heiress and regentess of the Wijnbergshofje. After she died, the house came into the hands of the Amsterdam banker Adriaan van der Hoop, and it was purchased for the society in 1841. [2] The original mission of the society included research as well as education. There are many awards, prizes, and collaborative initiatives that are kept up by the society. Membership is by invitation only, and the historical building is open by appointment only. Today the building is owned by the nl:Vereniging Hendrick de Keyser.
The Frans Hals Museum is a museum in the North Holland city of Haarlem, the Netherlands, founded in 1862, known as the Art Museum of Haarlem. Its collection is based on the city's own rich collection, built up from the 16th century onwards. The museum owns hundreds of paintings, including more than a dozen by Frans Hals, to whom the museum owes its name. The Frans Hals Museum has two historic locations in Haarlem city centre: the main location on Groot Heiligland and Location Hal on Grote Markt, composed of the adjacent 17th-century Vleeshal and 19th-century Verweyhal. On Groot Heiligland is the 17th-century Oudemannenhuis with regent's rooms. It houses the famous paintings by Frans Hals and other ancient, modern and contemporary art, as well as the museum café. Location Hal regularly hosts exhibitions of modern and contemporary art.
The City Hall in Haarlem is the seat of the city's government. It was built in the 14th century replacing the Count's castle.
Johan Hendrik Caspar Kern was a Dutch linguist and Orientalist. In the literature, he is usually referred to as H. Kern or Hendrik Kern; a few other scholars bear the same surname.
Martin(us) van Marum was a Dutch physician, inventor, scientist and teacher, who studied medicine and philosophy in Groningen. Van Marum introduced modern chemistry in the Netherlands after the theories of Lavoisier, and several scientific applications for general use. He became famous for his demonstrations with instruments, most notable the Large electricity machine, to show statical electricity and chemical experiments while curator for the Teylers Museum.
The Hollandsche IJzeren Spoorweg-Maatschappij or HSM was the first railway company in the Netherlands founded on 8 August 1837 as a private company, starting operation in 1839 with a line between Amsterdam and Haarlem. The company remained operational until 1938, when it merged with the Maatschappij tot Exploitatie van Staatsspoorwegen (SS) to form the Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS).
Pieter Teyler van der Hulst was a wealthy Dutch Mennonite merchant and banker, who died childless, leaving a legacy of two million florins to the pursuit of religion, arts and science in his hometown, that led to the formation of Teyler's Museum. This was not the value of his entire estate. He also founded Teylers Hofje in his name, and made important donations to individuals in the Mennonite community.
Jacob Gijsbertus Samuël van Breda was a Dutch biologist and geologist.
Christianus Cornelius Uhlenbeck was a Dutch linguist and anthropologist with a wide variety of research interests. His published work included books and articles on Germanic and Balto-Slavic languages, Sanskrit, Basque, and the Blackfoot language of North American Indians. He served as a lecturer at Leiden University.
Felix Meritis is the name of an intellectual society in Amsterdam, but subsequently used for the building they built for themselves on the Keizersgracht.
Cornelius Nozeman or Cornelis was a Dutch Remonstrant churchman and naturalist.
Sara Rothé (1699–1751) was an 18th-century art collector from the Northern Netherlands, known today as the former owner of two dollhouses now on display in the Frans Hals Museum and the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag.
Hieronymus de Bosch or Jeronimo de Bosch was a Latin poet and notable scholar from the Netherlands. He wrote several books, the most important of which was the "Anthologia Graeca", containing the Anthology of Planudes with Latin translation.
The Instrument Room is a room in Teylers Museum which houses a part of the museum's Cabinet of Physics: a collection of scientific instruments from the 18th and 19th centuries. The instruments in the collection were used for research as well as for educational public demonstrations. Most of them are demonstration models that illustrate various aspects of electricity, acoustics, light, magnetism, thermodynamics, and weights and measures. The rest are high-quality precision instruments that were used for research.
Abraham de Vries was a Dutch Mennonite minister, author on literature and member of several societies.
The Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde is a prestigious and exclusive literary society. The MNL was established in Leiden in 1766 and is still located there. At the moment, the society has approximately 1,600 members, mainly Dutch scholars. New members can only be elected after they are introduced by existing members. The MNL has two regional branches, for the Northern and the Southern part of the Netherlands, and also a representative in South Africa. King Willem-Alexander is the patron of the MNL.
Kornelis "Kees" Bakker was Professor at Leiden University Faculty of Ecology
Catharina Cornelia Hodshon was a wealthy Dutch heiress and regentess of the Wijnbergshofje.
Maria Hoofman (1776–1845), was a 19th-century art collector from the Northern Netherlands.
Sonia Kéfi is a network scientist and systems ecologist who studies ecosystem dynamics and the resilience of ecosystems to climate change and human land use. She works for the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) in the Institut des Sciences de l’Evolution de Montpellier, associated with the University of Montpellier, and is also affiliated as an external professor with the Santa Fe Institute.
Dominicus Franciscus du Bois was a Flemish artist and draughtsman. From 1826, he directed the Royal School for Applied and Visual arts in 's-Hertogenbosch.