oa ‘CENTRUM VAN WELDADIGE KRACHT VOOR HET ONDERWIJS’ OF ‘KOOP-MANSZAAK’?

For a short period of time, the city of Rotterdam housed a rather unique museum, the Museum of Education and Art (Museum voor Onderwijs en Kunst). It existed for six years and only for less than a year in its original form. In 1880 it was unlike other educational or – as they were usually called – school museums. Other than today’s cultural history school museums, these museums were integrated in education and functioned as a means to support mass education by the state. They did so by exhibiting the whole range of school materials to enable headmasters and teachers to make informed choices. School materials were also displayed at educational exhibitions at world fairs. The Museum in Rotterdam was exceptional because it was a private, commercial enterprise, unlike other school museums which were established by schoolboards, local authorities, or by a state. In addition, it was the first and probably the only case with a purpose-built housing, where others generally used existing (school)buildings or were part of an arts and crafts museum.