Unimaginable

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.