On Saturdays I rummage through my old cabinet, pull out and dust off an item, and present it here on Roots. Today: A few items from the 1957 exhibition The Atom. Last week I showed you a photo of the Queen and my grandfather during the opening of the exhibition The Atom. I have a few more items from the same event. Not a word on the official program about the presentation of the book on the official program. I only have the photo as proof that it really happened, and the receipt above. Looking at all these documents does leave me with a few...
read moreOn Saturdays I rummage through my old cabinet, pull out and dust off an item, and present it here on Roots. Today: A photo from the 1957 exhibition The Atom. On 28 June 1957, HRH Prince Bernhard opened the exhibition The Atom, in presence of his wife, HM Queen Juliana, and many other guests. The Atom was a major exhibition, highlighting the many blessings of nuclear energy. At the time, we did not know much about the risks and dangers. Highlight of the exhibition was a real, working, nuclear reactor. I found this short film about the opening...
read moreIn December, I showed you the grave of bishop Guy van Avesnes, in the Domkerk, the former Utrecht cathedral. Until the reformation, the (arch)bishops of Utrecht were buried in this church. After the reformation, the Domkerk became protestant, and no new bishop was appointed for several centuries. The Utrecht archbishopric was restored in 1853, and Johannes Zwijsen became the first modern archbishop of Utrecht. I don’t know where Zwijsen was buried, but his successors, starting with Andreas Ignatius Schaepman, are buried in the St....
read morePost-war emigration Triggered by the ruins of the war, the rampant housing shortage, and the bleak economic prospects in the agrarian sector, emigration from the Netherlands peaked in the fifteen years after the second world war. Emigration was actively encouraged by the Dutch government. The most popular destinations were Canada and Australia, and to a lesser extend the U.S., South Africa and New Zealand. Tracing your roots into the Netherlands is relatively easy if you descend from these emigrants. Many of the emigrants are still alive, and...
read more
