The theatre collection began with the collection of the Toneelmuseum and later the Theater Instituut Nederland and has grown into one of the largest in Europe over the past century. The collection comprises a variety of beautiful, appealing and intriguing objects and collections. In all, it concerns some 250,000 items, including costumes, models, posters, photographs, puppets, programmes, graphic art, books, scripts, sound and video recordings and archives. The collection is still being enriched daily with data and objects. All these objects are arranged according to six different disciplines in the collection's system: entertainment, dance, mime, music theatre, puppetry and theatre. Together, they cover over four centuries of Dutch theatre history.
In 1925, the Association Het Nederlands Toneelverbond founded the Tooneelmuseum Association. The occasion was the appearance on the market of a large collection of theatre memorabilia from the estate of the late collector T.H. Hartkamp. In 2025, we will celebrate this centenary extensively with a symposium, the launch of a book, and the presentation of one of our highlights: the Slingelandt Theatre. To mark this anniversary, the Friends of the Allard Pierson are offering a fellowship.
Suggestions for research:
• Diversity in the theatre collection: what is represented and what is missing
• Is the Slingelandt Theatre truly unique in Europe?
• Jodjana, Raden Mas Jodjana (1893–1972), an Indonesian dancer of classical ethnic Javanese dance who played a significant role in the Netherlands
• Regional representation in the theatre collections
• Research into gaps in the scenography collection from 1980 to 2010
• Or any other subject connected to the theater collections.
Searching in the collection
The theatre collection can be accessed at theatercollectie.uva.nl. When searching for people, remember to start with the surname. After you have selected an item from the theatre collection, you can request it by clicking on ‘borrow or view this item’ and using the request form. Museum material such as costumes, models, posters or paintings can only be consulted by appointment at the IWO depot.
Questions
Curator Hans van Keulen (j.h.k.vankeulen@uva.nl) can be contacted for questions about the collection. Fellowship programme coordinator Anna de Wilde (a.e.dewilde@uva.nl) can be contacted for questions about the application process
Guidelines
Please read more about the guidelines and the application process here.