Department of History

Authentic sources from the past

The Rijksmuseum has a very extensive cultural history collection, which includes paintings, ship models, sculptures, archaeological artefacts, clothing, weapons, historical prints, photographs, etc. In short, the items in the Rijksmuseum collection cover the entire spectrum and together form a single historical memory. The items comprise hundreds of thousands of objects from the past, which together give a visual account of the Netherlands' history within a global context. It goes without saying that users must approach this collection from their own angle. One of the defining characteristics of the objects is that they must satisfy criteria such as authenticity, visual power of expression, a clear provenance and context and their significance with respect to the knowledge and evocation of Dutch history, both at national and international level. Objects that do not meet these criteria are in principle not acquired.

The Rijksmuseum itself uses the collection as a point of departure to tell all kinds of 'stories' in books, web publications, exhibitions, 'permanent' presentations, audio tours, etc.

Curatorship

Direct responsibility for the curatorship of the collection is spread over three different multi-disciplinary departments. For example, the Visual Arts department is curator of the paintings and the Department of Prints and Drawings is curator of the historical prints.

The History department is curator of part of the collection that comprises various objects dating from the Middle Ages to the 20th century, which in one way or another relate to the development of the Netherlands within a global context. The collection includes archaeological artefacts, military effects, ship models, coins and medals, photographs and personal collections and objects.

The curators of the History department are in charge of their own department's collection and are also joint curators of the collections of the two other multi-disciplinary departments.