Posts in category M.W. Beijerinck
Glass negatives galore!
Small projector set up for glass negatives.
Glass negatives.
Our glass negative collection (about 27,000 of them) dates from the mid-1880s to the 1960s (when they were being used with the electron microscope. It covers a remarkably wide range of topics including Beijerinck’s gall wasps, light microscopy, travel (especially van Iterson’s working trip to Indonesia) to images from publications – essentially what any group of Professors would have in their Powerpoint collections today. The quality of the images is amazing – it has been possible to enlarge pictures to A0 without grain or blurring.
Later posts will showcase the individual collections of the three Professors, this is just a taster to show examples of what we have.
Brendel flower models
The collection includes about 20 of the flower models made by Robert and Reinhold Brendel in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The models are made from papier-mâché with other materials including plaster, glass beads, wood, cotton and rattan added to give detail or texture. They can be taken apart to reveal internal details (although they’re not always simple to put back together again). The Brendels were advised on the accuracy of their models by various Professors, depending on what the particular model was intended to show. As well as plants, models of fungi, yeast and bacteria were eventually included.
Dealers included the models in their own catalogues, but Delft has the only known surviving Brendel catalogue, issued in Berlin in 1913.
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