With these words, the fictional Amsterdam coffee broker, Batavus Droogstoppel, positioned himself in decent Dutch society. Portrayed as the caricature of an unfeeling intolerant hypocrite, Droogstoppel represented one segment of Dutch middle-class society in Amsterdam. A trader of colonial wares who married into a respectable family, he also confirmed his identification with polite society by pointing out his membership in the private Zoological Society (Zoologisch Genootschap)Natura Artis Magistra– the Amsterdam zoo.

Clearly, for the Dutch who readMax Havelaarwhen it appeared in 1860,Artismembership was a recognizable status symbol.Artisemerged as a significant cultural institution...

In May of 1888, three days of festivities took place to mark the fiftieth anniversary of Amsterdam’s zoological garden, the Koninklijk Zoologisch GenootschapNatura Artis Magistra(Royal Zoological SocietyNature is the Teacher of Art).¹ Flowers, flags, and banners decorated the neighborhood during the special events. Inside the zoological garden gates, B.J. Stokvis, physiologist and Professor of Medicine at the Municipal University of Amsterdam, extolled the accomplishments of the society in his keynote address. The new building for the society’s Ethnographic Museum opened on this occasion, and a select crowd visited the exhibits that had been augmented by the collections...

In the decades between the founding ofArtisin 1838 and the founding of the Municipal University of Amsterdam in 1877, conflict plagued relations betweenArtisand the city government.Artis’s attempts to expand and construct buildings were thwarted by city policies. Charged with protecting the public interest, the Amsterdam municipal government repeatedly defended its refusal to grant building permits, for example, with the argument that the expansion of theprivatezoological society could not take place at the expense of the public interest. Because the original zoological garden was situated in a non-residential area where the city had previously...

Without reaping any obvious benefits, the Amsterdam bourgeoisie financed the development of the professional scientific identity ofArtis. Its members, content with their access to the zoological garden and museum, also supported the scientific endeavors of their zoological society to build the institution that was to become “the most beautiful pearl in the crown of the city of Amsterdam.”² During the second decade ofArtis, the Board of Directors – with some prodding from Westerman – consciously expanded the serious scientific commitment of the zoo. The natural history activities ofArtishad to extend from displays aimed at amateurs, to...

This explicit poetic description ofArtisby a board member leaves little to the imagination. Science, art, animals, shipbuilding, navigation, and commerce join together at the zoological garden that honors, and is honored by, the patroness of Amsterdam (Illustration 8). The poem, in essence, pays tribute to the enterprising Dutch who shared their personal wealth when supporting the Amsterdam zoological institution.Artis, in turn, became a cultural center for the city, and a source of civic pride.

The Dutch defined a new national cultural identity after years of French rule that ended in 1813 and the economic recovery that was...

The hundreds of burghers who attended G.F. Westerman’s funeral in 1890 mourned the loss of “the soul of the Society.”¹Artis, however, had already entered its decline although it was not a direct result of Westerman’s death. In their efforts to elevate the status of their nation and its capital, the Dutch burghers who financedArtis, and later the Concertgebouw and the Rijksmuseum, created new forms of cultural life that ultimately madeArtisseem outmoded. In the course of his long life, which spanned most of the nineteenth century, Westerman and his contemporaries were motivated by both the civic and...