NEMO Science Center: The Vrolik Collection

During their lives, Gerard Vrolik (1175-1859) and his son Willem Vrolik (1801-1863) began a collection for the 'Museum Vrolikanium'. Housed in the residence of Gerard Vrolik, the museum was very well known in Europe at that time. Together, father and son collected for 70 years, resulting in an enormous collection of 5103 specimens.

Many of these specimens were used for scientific research. At that time, one often had to rely on such specimens because many techniques that we now use did not yet exist.