About the collections
The Allard Pierson's collections of comics, illustrations and popular printing offer a colourful and diverse picture of visual culture across the centuries. Here, you will find 300,000 comic drawings and illustrations for children's books, mainly from the 20th century, but also 6,000 prints from before 1900. Together, these collections provide a broad overview of Dutch visual culture.
Children's book illustrations reflect not only artistic trends but also the pedagogical and social attitudes that have shaped generations of children. Penny prints, almanacs, broadsheets, and cheap imprints became popular with a wide audience and played an important role in disseminating stories, knowledge and moral values and norms. They provide insight into the spread of ideas, trends, and technologies, as well as how these visual expressions mirror social and cultural change.
Whether through light satire, social criticism or realistic sketches of everyday life, collections of comic book creators such as Jan Kruis and Gerrit de Jager, and collectors like Nico Boerma and Arie van den Berg, offer a great diversity of material to study socially relevant issues.
Priority areas / highlights
- Gerrit de Jager collection
- Jan Kruis / Andrea Kruis / Jan van der Voo collection
- Alfred Mazure collection
- Peter Pontiac collection
- Peter van Straaten collection
- Annemarie van Haeringen
- Rie Reinderhof
- Arie van den Berg collection
- Nico Boerma collection
- Dance of Death
Searching the collections
Printed works can be found via the online Catalogue. For prints, illustrations and comics, the cataloguing process is still ongoing, so it is recommended to contact the curator for specific questions.
More details on the content, acquisition and provenance of specific collections can be found in ArchivesSpace. If you are unable to request materials or have another question, please use the contact form.
Contact persons
- Katell Lavéant
Curator of printed collections
Send an e-mail: k.v.m.p.laveant@uva.nl
UvA-profile: To the UvA staff page - Jos van Waterschoot
Curator of book history collections and comics
Send an e-mail: j.a.m.vanwaterschoot@uva.nl
UvA-profile: To the UvA staff page
Support the Allard Pierson
Your contribution makes it possible to acquire, expand and restore collections, to undertake research into the collections, develop educational programmes and present them to tens of thousands of visitors a year. Can we count you in?
