Unimaginable
Until 7 January 2024 from 10:00 to 17:00
Exhibition
A tiny microscope was all he needed to uncover an entirely new world, a world nobody had seen before. National Museum Boerhaave revisits a world first discovered by Antoni van Leeuwenhoek 350 years ago with the exhibition Unimaginable. How Van Leeuwenhoek’s microscope changed the world.
Antoni who?
Antoni van Leeuwenhoek was a Dutch textile merchant who made a name for himself with his self-made microscope. He saw things that had never been seen before, discovering an entirely new world. It may be a rather unusual combination, a trader who is also a microbiologist, but Antoni regularly used magnifying lenses to check fabrics. Working with metal plates and glass globules, he eventually created a small device, a microscope that proved so excellent that it was the first ever to reveal the microworld.
Van Leeuwenhoek made hundreds of microscopes, yet only a few have been preserved worldwide. This makes it rather special that National Museum Boerhaave has no fewer than 5 of them in its collection. Van Leeuwenhoek’s microscope is so special that it was finalist in the national masterpiece contest Pronkstuk van Nederland, leaving Rembrandt’s Nightwatch behind.
Find out for yourself!
In the Unimaginable exhibition, we will bring you as close to Antoni van Leeuwenhoek as possible. You will be peering over his 17th-century shoulders, as it were. What did he see? And what made it so special? As visitors, you will experience the sense of wonder and fun of those very first peeks into the microworld.
Visitor information
Access
Included in the museum ticket.
Netherlands Museum Pass valid
Date
Until 7 January 2024 from 10:00 to 17:00
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Location
Rijksmuseum Boerhaave
2312 WC Leiden
Open today from 10:00 until 17:00
Day | Opening hours |
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Thu - Tue | 10:00 - 17:00 |
Discover more
Purchase a Netherlands Museum Pass or a ticket to a museum
Netherlands Museum Pass
Purchase the Netherlands Museum Pass to visit more than 400 museums in the Netherlands for one year.
Type of Museum Pass | Price |
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Adult Pass | € 64,90 |
Young Person Pass | € 32,45 |
Kids Pass | € 32,45 |
Rijksmuseum Boerhaave also sells Netherlands Museum Passes on-site.
Ticket prices Unimaginable
With Netherlands Museum Pass |
free of charge |
Standard tickets Rijksmuseum Boerhaave
Group tickets | Price |
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0 t/m 3 jaar | free of charge |
4 t/m 17 jaar | € 5,50 |
Volwassenen | € 14 |