Amsterdam World Museum

About

In 1864, the Haarlem botanist Frederik Willem van Eeden begins assembling raw materials and craftwork from the Dutch colonial territories, and by 1871 the resulting holdings open to the public as the Koloniaal Museum. Half a century later, in 1926, a new building rises on Amsterdam's Oosterpark, designed by the Van Nieukerken architectural firm on a site once occupied by a cemetery; Queen Wilhelmina attends its opening as the Koloniaal Instituut. During the Second World War the building serves as headquarters for the German Grüne Polizei, even as resistance activity operates from within its walls. After Indonesia declares independence in 1945, the institute is renamed, eventually becoming the Tropenmuseum under the Royal Tropical Institute. In 2014 it merges with Museum Volkenkunde in Leiden and the Afrika Museum in Berg en Dal to form the National Museum of World Cultures, and in 2023 takes its present name, Wereldmuseum Amsterdam. In 2022 alone, 317,572 visitors pass through its doors, drawn to collections built around musical instruments and Indonesian textiles that trace the human stories behind them.