Museum Kam

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Front view of the museum
(status 2010)

The Kam Museum was an archaeological museum in the Dutch city of Nijmegen and a direct precursor of today's Museum Het Valkhof . An archaeological study center has been located there since 1999.

Emergence

Opening of the museum in 1922

The Rotterdam entrepreneur Gerard Marius Kam (1836–1922), who was successful in the steel trade, had lived in Nijmegen since 1897 and, as an amateur archaeologist, had built up an extensive private collection of antiques there over the years. Due to the former Ulpia Noviomagus Batavorum and some Roman military camps, the bulk of the finds were naturally of Roman origin. In 1919 he donated his collection to the Dutch state and had a museum building built in Nijmegen at his own expense to house the artefacts, which was then given his name. The building was erected on Kamstraat in the Wijk (district) Hunnerberg . Construction work began in 1919 and the opening took place in 1922. It received the status of a Reichsmuseum ( Rijksmuseum ) until the state transferred the museum to the province of Gelderland in 1987 and it only had the status of a provincial museum .

architecture

Atrium
(as of spring 2018)
Staircase with mural by Sjollema
(status spring 2018)

The building was designed by the architect Oscar Leeuw . Architecturally, the building is based on the fantasy of a Roman Villa Urbana and was executed in an eclectic mix of Art Deco and Expressionist elements.

It is a brick building with tuff decorations and two towers. The towers are decorated with carved medallions that show the images of Roman emperors based on the model of Roman coins. On the left tower there is a portrait of Nero , on the right one of Vespasian . The design of the facade comes from the Vindonissa Museum in Brugg from 1912. Above the entrance is a bronze statue of the Roman she-wolf with Romulus and Remus . The building was badly damaged in the Second World War and could not be reopened until 1951. However, the interior of the museum remained largely intact. However, the fresco above the atrium stairs was destroyed. The current mural was made by Johan Sybo Sjollema in 1948 and is based on Ulpia Noviomagus Batavorum.

The building is a historical monument. Three components of the building ensemble were given the status of a Rijksmonument separately : the building itself, the concierge's apartment and the wall surrounding the site.

Museum merger and new use since 1999

In 1999 the collections of the Kam Museum were merged with those of a second museum, opened in 1969 in the historic (15th century), diverse, gastronomic and multicultural building Commanderie van Sint Jan and exhibited in a new museum building, the Museum Het Valkhof. Today, the Commanderie is once again a popular gastronomic meeting point in the city, while the old museum, the Gelders Archeologische Centrum GM Kam ("Gelderland Archaeological Center Museum GM Kam"), is a study center, which includes an 11,000-volume specialist library and parts of the archaeological depots of the province of Gelderland . The study center is affiliated with the Museum Het Valkhof. The final naming was a compromise. It was preceded by a long-term dispute between the state and the province on the one hand and the heirs of Gerard Kam on the other.

literature

  • GD van der Heide: Het Rijksmuseum GM Kam georganiseerd heropend . In: Journal Numaga 9 (1962) No. 3, Nijmegen 1962, pp. 131-136.
  • WJ Pantus en L. Swinkels: Een stenige away. The wisselvallige betrekkingen tussen Museum Kam en de gemeente Nijmegen. Een terugblik . In: Jaarbuch Numaga XLIV, Nijmegen 1997, pp. 7-25.
  • Petrus JJ Stuart: Het dilemma van GM Kam. Leiden of Nijmegen. In: Zeitschrift Numaga 32 (1985) No. 1, Nijmegen 1985, pp. 5-11.
  • LJF Swinkels: A splendid example. Vijfenzeventig jaar Museum GM Came 1922–1997 . Vereniging van Vrienden van het Museum Kam, Nijmegen 1997.

Web links

Commons : Museum Kam  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files
  • Biography of Gerard Marius Kams on the website Biografisch Woordenboek Gelderland (Dutch), accessed on November 9, 2018.
  • Museum GM Kam on the website Huis van de Nijmeegse geschiedenis (Dutch), accessed on November 9, 2018.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ About the Leeuw brothers on the website Huis van de Nijmeegse geschiedenis (Dutch), accessed on November 9, 2018.
  2. ↑ a b Museum GM Kam on the website Huis van de Nijmeegse geschiedenis (Dutch), accessed on November 9, 2018.
  3. ↑ Rijksmonument 522950 Museum Kam on the list of Dutch Royal Monuments (Dutch), accessed November 9, 2018th
  4. ↑ Rijksmonument 522951: Concier's apartment on the list of Dutch imperial monuments (Dutch), accessed on November 9, 2018.
  5. ↑ Rijksmonument 522952: fencing on the list of Dutch Royal Monuments (Dutch), accessed November 9, 2018th
  6. ↑ Rijksmonument number 31123 on the list of Dutch imperial monuments (Dutch), accessed on November 9, 2018.
  7. ↑ Official website of the Commanderie van Sint Jan (Dutch), accessed on November 9, 2018.

Coordinates: 51 ° 50 ′ 31.1 "  N , 5 ° 52 ′ 41.7"  E