Museum of Ethnology

The Volkenkunde Museum, or the National Museum of Ethnology, has around 200,000 in its collections exhibits - items related to funeral rites, holidays, religious life, conflicts. Exhibits come from virtually all over the world and are the basis for organizing numerous temporary exhibitions. The facility, which was first opened to visitors in 1830, is the oldest ethnographic museum in the world.

Museum Volkenkunde was founded on the basis of two large private collections. The first of these was Koninklijk Kabinet van Zeldzaamheden (Royal Cabinet of Singularities), founded in 1816 by King Willem I. After its liquidation, the ethnographic collections were transferred to the Museum Volkenkunde. The second pillar of the current collection has become the private Japanese collection of Philipp Franz von Siebold (1796-1866) - a German doctor, ethnologist and collector.

The Museum Volkenkunde is considered to be the main ethnological institution for other museums in the Netherlands. The exhibitions presented here are based on the main conviction that learning about the diversity of other cultures is the basis for understanding our own identity and the unity of mankind.