{"id":132982,"date":"2021-11-18T12:56:06","date_gmt":"2021-11-18T11:56:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=132982"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:25:59","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:25:59","slug":"were-not-leiden-utrecht-or-groningen-but-we-do-have-a-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2021\/11\/18\/were-not-leiden-utrecht-or-groningen-but-we-do-have-a-history\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We’re not Leiden, Utrecht or Groningen, but we do have a history’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The collection belonging to the RSC\/RVSV has led a nomadic existence for years, but it has now found a safe haven at the University Library (UB). Not only does the university hope to tell the story of the oldest student association in Rotterdam this way, but also to finally properly portray the history of Rotterdam’s student life.<\/p>\n

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Librarian Roman Koot looks into an almanac.<\/span><\/p>

\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWouter Sterrenburg<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Over 100 years of almanacs, ties, silver plates, bottles of lustrum wine and membership lists. But also, relics from the Second World War, a stuffed peacock and some 200,000 photonegatives. The collection of the RSC\/RVSV Museum is so diverse, wide-ranging and sometimes bizarre that even the chair and the curator of the museum do not know exactly what has been kept since 1913, the year when Rotterdam\u2019s oldest association was founded. \u201cWe are the society that is the farthest along when it comes to building an archive,\u201d says Dani\u00ebl Sikkens (64), the chair of the museum board. \u201cAnd we have collected the most \u2018rubbish’\u201d, curator Mark Hugen (61) laughingly adds.<\/p>\n

Museum seeks museum<\/h2>

In 2014, the RSC Museum foundation was established (after the merger with the RVSV in 2017 it was renamed the RSC\/RVSV Museum), which looks after the heritage of the corps. At that time, there was already a massive collection of material, but the items were stored all over the place. The board of the foundation therefore resolved to collect everything and assemble the collection in one place.<\/p>\n

However, that spot does change from time to time. For example, the collection was temporarily in the home of a former member in Belgium, then in a Rotterdam company building and finally on a floor in the former philosophy faculty close to the campus. \u201cThe museum is called the RSC\/RVSV Museum, but it has never been a proper museum,\u201d Hugen explains. \u201cIt is a collection that could be viewed by (former) members for a while, but nothing more than that. The board wanted the collection to be more widely accessible in a permanent location.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Lustrum wine from the 1970s has also been preserved.<\/span><\/p>

\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWouter Sterrenburg<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Honourable task<\/h2>

When Sikkens and Hugen were appointed as members of the museum board at the beginning of last year, they soon realised what a huge chore they had to deal with. Says Sikkens: \u201cI certainly didn\u2019t think it would be an honourable task. It isn\u2019t that either. It\u2019s also a job for the next few years that will go far beyond the time we have as board members. Our predecessors gave us an Excel sheet with an inventory of the entire collection, but the descriptions were often quite brief.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, the previous board had also noticed this. The dream of a permanent location combined with a lack of financial resources and expertise in storing and maintaining a collection led to talks with the university. The outcome was that the University Library has been given the collection on loan, an inventory will be made of everything collected over the years and they will explore how the story of the corps can be told.<\/p>\n

The collection has enough special objects to tell that story. The stuffed peacock is, obviously, one of the most striking pieces, but other objects are also of great historical value. \u201cThe peacock is a trophy from one of the annual clubs within the association, I honestly don\u2019t know the exact story, yet\u201d Hugen admits. \u201cWhat I, as a historian, find very special are the almanacs and other documents from the war period that have been preserved. The corps was banned in those years, so all documents were anonymised. But they show very clearly what student life was like during wartime.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A stuffed peacock<\/span><\/p>

\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWouter Sterrenburg<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Higgledy-piggledy<\/h2>

Waving off the truck containing the collection was one of Sikkens and Hugen\u2019s first chores as the new board last year. Only a few kilometres away, the collection was welcomed with open arms by heritage curator Roman Koot of the UB. \u201cWe consider the museum collection to be a very important part of student life and the university\u2019s academic heritage. The association has existed as long as the university. I had seen the collection before and knew how extensive it was, so we were definitely interested.\u201d<\/p>\n

The collection of the corps is also very opportune for another reason. \u201cThe Academic Heritage programme was launched three years ago. As the University Library, we noticed that everything dealing with the history of the university, education and research was not properly accommodated anywhere. It was all there, but it was all higgledy-piggledy. Concern for the university\u2019s heritage had faded away.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The first photo in the history of the RSC, taken during the first corps dinner.<\/span><\/p>

\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWouter Sterrenburg<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Attention to history<\/h2>

Around the time of the university\u2019s centenary celebration in 2013, the Executive Board came to realise that something had to be done with the university\u2019s past. But just as the decorations for the festivities slowly disappeared in the period that followed, so did the attention for its history. Which is why the director of the University Library sounded the alarm three years ago.<\/p>\n

Koot says: \u201cAs a library, we felt responsible for our cultural heritage. That is how the Academic Heritage programme came about, with the support of the Executive Board. I came to work here at that time and was asked to lead the programme as its manager. In the first phase, we mainly looked at what we ourselves had in terms of heritage within the university, because we just didn\u2019t know. We didn\u2019t have any time for the associations\u2019 collections at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A glimpse into a box full of ties.<\/span><\/p>

\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWouter Sterrenburg<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Unpacking boxes<\/h2>

But midway through the programme, an opportunity presented itself that Koot and his colleagues could not afford to miss: to get the collection of the corps museum on loan. Because of all the problems due to corona (\u2018if you work at home, you can\u2019t really work on the collection\u2019) the process was delayed for a year. But since last summer, Liza Silvius has been shutting herself away in the depot of the University Library for a few days every week. As an employee of Academic Heritage, she is busy opening up the collection. Initially, that means mainly unpacking boxes and seeing what comes out of them. \u201cAs long as things are in boxes, you can\u2019t do much with them. So, I started unpacking everything and now I\u2019m in the sorting phase. I find everything, absolutely everything that has to do with student life, but there are also some really special things. Like a really great snapshot of the first corps dinner where Polak (the person who bestowed the EUR building its name, ed.) can be seen in.\u201d<\/p>\n

An extra handicap for Silvius: with every box that is opened, the work becomes more difficult because the story becomes even longer and more complex. \u201cI have to reconstruct the story. I have read books about the history; I ask the guys on the board a lot of questions so that I can handle all that information. For an outsider, a cup from the collection might be just an ordinary cup, but for me it is a bearer of information. With a year date or a text on such a cup, I can in turn give other items from the collection a more logical place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Koot continues: \u201d With this collection, we don\u2019t just want to tell the story of the corps, but also that of the student life as a whole. Which is what we bear in mind when we are picking out items so that we know what we need.\u201d That common thread becomes even more important. Which items do you need to tell the story and what\u2019s maybe not so necessary? Those decisions will be made in the coming months together with the museum board.\u00a0\u201cThere is no point in collecting everything. For us, the war almanacs and objects from the first period of the association are more important because very little is known about student life back in those days.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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Een lijst van afbeeldingen<\/h2>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t
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