Pieter Teyler van der Hulst (25 March 1702 – 8 April 1778) was a wealthy Dutch Mennonite merchant and banker, who died childless, leaving a legacy of two million

florin The Florentine florin was a gold coin struck from 1252 to 1533 with no significant change in its design or metal content standard during that time. It had 54 grains (3.499 grams, 0.113 troy ounce) of nominally pure or 'fine' gold with a purcha ...

s (in today's terms: about EUR 80 million) to the pursuit of religion, arts and science in his hometown, that led to the formation of

Teyler's Museum Teylers Museum () is an art, natural history, and science museum in Haarlem, Netherlands. Established in 1778, Teylers Museum was founded as a centre for contemporary art and science. The historic centre of the museum is the neoclassical Oval R ...

. This was not the value of his entire

estate Estate or The Estate may refer to: Law * Estate (law), a term in common law for a person's property, entitlements and obligations * Estates of the realm, a broad social category in the histories of certain countries. ** The Estates, representat ...

. He also founded Teylers Hofje in his name, and made important donations to individuals in the Mennonite community.

Biography

Pieter Teyler van der Hulst was born on 25 March 1702 in

Haarlem Haarlem (; predecessor of ''Harlem'' in English) is a city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland. Haarlem is situated at the northern edge of the Randstad, one of the most populated metropoli ...

in the Dutch Republic. Teyler was an active follower of the

Scottish Enlightenment The Scottish Enlightenment ( sco, Scots Enlichtenment, gd, Soillseachadh na h-Alba) was the period in 18th- and early-19th-century Scotland characterised by an outpouring of intellectual and scientific accomplishments. By the eighteenth century ...

, being descended from wealthy Scots merchants. His name is derived from the Scottish ''Tailor''. He married the lady Helena Wynands Verschaave in 1728. He was an active member of the "Waterlander" mennonite community and became a trustee of the city orphanage from 1750 onwards.Teyler van der Hulst, Pieter (1702-1778)
on

Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online The Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online (GAMEO) is an online encyclopedia of topics relating to Mennonites and Anabaptism. The mission of the project is to provide free, reliable, English-language information on Anabaptist-related top ...

He made his wealth as a silk and cloth merchant, but from 1763 he became more and more active as a banker. He made loans to his Haarlem contemporaries, including to his fellow Scot and neighbor George Clifford III, the wealthy Amsterdam merchant known for sponsoring Carl Linnaeus. Scottish bankers such as Teyler, Clifford, and Hope & Co. were all patrons of the arts and sciences. Teyler was also active in the Haarlem Mennonite community with his wife, and together they founded a Mennonite hofje in the Teyler name in 1752.Haarlems hofjes, Dr.

G. H. Kurtz Gerdina Hendrika Kurtz (1899–1989) was a Dutch historian, writer and archivist. She published under the name, G.H. Kurtz. Early years Gerda Kurtz was born in Amsterdam, and moved to Haarlem with her family at age seven. She studied at a girls' ...

, Schuyt & Co C.V., Haarlem, 1972, Unlike other Mennonite hofjes of Haarlem, however, it was not necessary for its residents to be Mennonites. In the 18th century, the ruling classes of Amsterdam (where Teyler had his banking offices) and Haarlem were all Protestants, as was the Dutch

Stadtholder In the Low Countries, ''stadtholder'' ( nl, stadhouder ) was an office of steward, designated a medieval official and then a national leader. The ''stadtholder'' was the replacement of the duke or count of a province during the Burgundian and H ...

. Roman Catholics, Mennonites, Quakers, and others were unable to participate in organisations such as the Dutch Society of Science (Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen), which was started in Haarlem in 1752 with the purpose of pursuing science in all aspects. This society moved in 1831 across the Spaarne river from Teyler's Museum, and has had close ties with Teyler's legacy ever since. Pieter Teyler was influenced by the local Natural History College (Dutch: Natuurkundig College)(whose activities are mentioned in 1730) and the

Dutch Society of Sciences The Koninklijke Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen (Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities), located on the east side of the Spaarne in downtown Haarlem, Netherlands, was established in 1752 and is the oldest society for the scie ...

. Other Mennonites and citizens of Haarlem who were interested in natural history were members of these institutions. With others, he was involved in the initiative to establish the City Drawing School (1772). By lending large sums of money, he also facilitated other initiatives, including new premises for the Dutch Society of Sciences (1777) and the establishment of a College of Music (1773).

Collection

Unfortunately, little is documented of the original collection of Pieter Teyler. When he died, he had a large collection of natural history artefacts, medals, drawings, and a large library. The early executors of his will seem to have sold some of it to create the

Oval room The Oval Room in the Teylers Museum was the first part of the museum (though it was not called a museum yet) that was opened in 1784. It could be entered through the garden of the fundatiehuis, the former home of Pieter Teyler van der Hulst. The ...

, and much of the rest of it was mixed in with later purchases, but many aspects of his collection remain in the mission of the various aspects of the museum. Curators over the years have managed to reconstruct much of his coin collection, and many of the paintings he purchased for his home are still installed where they were intended.

Legacy

In his Will (written in 1756) Pieter Teyler stipulated that his collection and part of his fortune should be used to establish a foundation for their promotion:

Teylers Stichting The Teylers Stichting (English: Teylers Foundation) is a Dutch foundation founded with the heritage of the Dutch 18th century cloth merchant and banker Pieter Teyler van der Hulst to support the people in need and encourage worship, science and ...

. The Teyler legacy to the city of Haarlem was split into two societies: Teylers First or Theological Society (Dutch: Teylers Eerste of Godgeleerd Genootschap), intended for the study of religion and Teylers Second Society (Dutch: Teylers Tweede Genootschap), which was to concern itself with physics, poetry, history, drawing and numismatics. The executors of Teyler's Will, the first directors of Teylers Stichting, decided to establish a centre for study and education: Teylers Museum. His former home in Haarlem with its entrance on the Damstraat is joined to the Teyler's Museum at the rear through a side door in the Oval room. Today his house is known as the " Fundatiehuis" and is open only by appointment and once a year on "Monumentendag". File:Vrouwe-en-AntonieGasthuys.jpg, The Vrouwe- en Antonie Gasthuys today, original location of Teyler's hofje from 1752 to 1787 File:Teylershofje-binnentuin.JPG, Teylers Hofje today, the grander version built in 1787

References

Literature

* ''Teyler 1778-1978. Studies en bijdragen over Teylers Stichting naar aanleiding van het tweede eeuwfeest'' (Haarlem / Antwerpen 1978) (in Dutch). * W.W. Mijnhardt, ''Tot Heil van ’t Menschdom. Culturele genootschappen in Nederland 1750-1815'' (Amsterdam 1988) (in Dutch). * B. Sliggers (red.), ''De idealen van Pieter Teyler. Een erfenis uit de Verlichting'' (Haarlem 2006) (in Dutch).
Article
on the portraits of Pieter Teyler (in Dutch). B. Sliggers, ''Teyler geportretteerd'', Teylers Magazijn 91 (2006), pp. 2–5.

Biography

Collection

Legacy

See also

References

Literature

External links