Museum Boerhaave

Rijksmuseum Boerhaave
Entrance of the museum
Entrance of the museum
Map
Established1931[1]
LocationLange Sint Agnietenstraat 10
Leiden, Netherlands
TypeScience Museum
Collection size87,600 objects[2]
Visitors55,000 (2011)[2]
DirectorDirk VanDelft[3]
PresidentDouwe Breimer[3]
CuratorHans Hooijmaijers[3]
Public transit accessLeiden Centraal
Websitemuseumboerhaave.nl

Rijksmuseum Boerhaave is a museum of the history of science and medicine, based in Leiden, Netherlands. The museum hosts a collection of historical scientific instruments from all disciplines, but mainly from medicine, physics, and astronomy.

The museum is located in a building that was originally a convent in central Leiden. It includes a reconstructed traditional anatomical theatre. It also has many galleries that include the apparatus with which Heike Kamerlingh Onnes first liquefied helium (in Leiden), the electromagnet equipment used by Wander Johannes de Haas (a Leiden physicist) for his low-temperature research, and an example of the Leiden jar, among many other objects in the extensive collection.

The museum is named after Herman Boerhaave, a Dutch physician and botanist who was famous in Europe for his teaching at Leiden and lived to a great age, receiving brilliant students from all over Europe, including Peter the Great, Voltaire and Linnaeus.

  1. ^ (in Dutch) 80 jaar Museum Boerhaave. Museum Boerhaave. Retrieved on 2012-01-24.
  2. ^ a b (in Dutch) Missie Boerhaave Museum. Museum Boerhaave. Retrieved on 2012-01-24.
  3. ^ a b c (in Dutch) Organisatie Museum Boerhaave. Museum Boerhaave. Retrieved on 2012-01-24.