University and Student Life

Prints, Drawings and Portraits

More than a costume party. Costumes for the Leiden Student Pageant of 1910

Within the field of costume history, fancy dress can be a rather complicated and neglected category. Are we looking at ‘fake’ clothes or well-made imitations? Research can reveal some interesting facts about its production, its previous owners, and their motives for ordering these clothes.

Manuscripts, Archives and Letters

The early years of mathematics education at Leiden University (1575-1645)

Leiden University was one of the first universities in Europe to offer a practical mathematics course, taught in vernacular, parallel to a theoretical course. Why was this practical course taught and what did it teach students? The lecture notes of one of its first teachers can tell us a lot.

Portraits of Leiden University

Leiden University Libraries recently acquired a rare eighteenth-century book at an auction in Belgium. It concerns a collection of engraved portraits of Leiden professors, supplemented with a city plan and several engravings of Leiden cityscapes.

A new puzzle piece in the life of Irawan Soejono

At the beginning of the Second World War, a lot of Indonesian students attended university in the Netherlands. One of the best-known Indonesian students is Irawan Soejono. Struck by his story, we discovered new information about his whereabouts and activities during his time as a resistance fighter.

Prints, Drawings and Portraits

Leiden University’s third centenary and jubilee (1875)

The fifteenth of June 1875 was a pleasant and warm day. Some menacing clouds threatened to throw a spanner in the works, but luckily the rain never came. Fortunate for the crowds gathering in Leiden, as on this day, Leiden University celebrated its three hundredth anniversary.

Prints, Drawings and Portraits

Dogs in the library (1610). A team for utility and entertainment

Dogs were a much-loved subject in early modern prints. On the oldest depiction of the Leiden University Library, a print from 1610 after design by Jan Cornelisz Woudanus (ca. 1565-1615) two dogs are visible in the foreground, and not without purpose.

Manuscripts, Archives and Letters

Political propositions: Willem Bilderdijk’s legal dissertation

Many recognise Willem Bilderdijk as one of the greatest poets in Dutch literary history, but only few know that he was a rather famous lawyer, all thanks to his education in Leiden. Letters, lecture notes and other documents provide insight into his time as a law student at Leiden University.

Manuscripts, Archives and Letters

Poet Anna van der Aar de Sterke and her all-female literary society 'Die Erg Denkt Vaart Erg In ’T Hart'

Leiden University student Evi Dijcks added a new chapter to Dutch literary history when she discovered the earliest all-female literary society in the Dutch Republic, founded in 1782. The discovery shows: 18th-century women did not wait around for men to include them in their literary activities.

Manuscripts, Archives and Letters

Purging Leiden University after World War II

The end of WWII and the reopening of Leiden University meant the start of the purging of the university, aimed at removing all staff, professors and students from Leiden’s academic community that had sympathised with the Nazi oppressors.