The Tjitze Kuipers Collection on Abraham Kuyper
Scope and Contents
This collection contains the items collected by Tjitze Kuipers that document the life of Abraham Kuyper. It includes dozens of portraits of Kuyper and his political contemporaries, as well as portraits of John Calvin. The collection also contains hundreds of large political cartoon prints and caricatures and posters. Objects and artifacts in the collection include furniture and three-dimensional Kuyper paraphernalia.
In addition, the collection holds hundreds of pamphlets and several boxes of papers which have (as of May 2010) yet to be catalogued. Kuipers’ library of works about Kuyper, including complete runs of De Standaard and De Heraut, will be cataloged separately.
Dates
- Creation: 1878 - 2004
Biographical / Historical
Abraham Kuyper was an influential pastor, journalist, author, professor, statesman and Neo-Calvinist theologian. In 1896, as a pastor recently converted to orthodox Calvinism, he led a schism in the Dutch Reformed Church because the church no longer required officers to uphold the Reformed Confessions. Kuyper’s movement eventually became the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands. As a politician, Kuyper supported the rights of all faith-based communities to establish their own schools, hospitals and other organizations that would be equally funded by the government. His worldview has had an enormous impact on Reformed theology around the world.
Chronology of Abrahm Kuyper
- 1837-10-29
- Born in Maassluis, the Netherlands
- 1962
- Doctorate in Theology, Leiden University
- 1863-1867
- Minister, Dutch Reformed Church at Beesd
- 1963
- Married, Johanna Hendrika Schaay
- 1867-1870
- Minister, Dutch Reformed Church at Utrecht
- 1870
- Minister, Dutch Reformed Church at Amsterdam
- 1871
- Founded De Standaard
- 1874-1877
- Member of Parliament, representing the constituency of Gouda
- 1879
- 1879
- Founder, Anti-Revolutionary Party
- 1879-1905
- Chairman, Anti-Revolutionary Party
- 1880
- Founder the Free University of Amsterdam
- Professor of Theology, Free University of Amsterdam
- 1881
- Professor of Literature, Free University of Amsterdam
- 1886
- Leader, the Doleantie (exodus from the Dutch Reformed Church)
- 1892
- Leader, creation of the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands
- 1894-1901
- Member of Parliament, representing the district of Sliedrecht
- 1898
- Stone Lecturer (“Lectures on Calvinism”) at Princeton Theological Seminary
- 1898-1901
- Chairman, Dutch Circle of Journalists
- 1901-1905
- Prime Minister of the Netherlands
- 1908-1912
- Representative in Dutch House of Representatives for the district of Ommen
- 1913-1920
- Senator, representing the province of South Holland
- 1920-11-08
- Died, the Hague
Full Extent
000 Linear Feet (30 boxes, 92 binders)
Language of Materials
Dutch; Flemish
Arrangement
Series I (Box 1): Busts.
Series one consists of three similarly-sized and styled hollow metal busts. The busts are approximately eight inches high. Artist(s) and creation dates are unknown.
Series II (Boxes 2-3): Caricature and portrait books.
This series contains several books, large envelopes containing prints, newspapers containing cartoons, photographs, biographical articles, and loose prints of caricatures and portraits of the politicians in the Netherlands at the beginning of the twentieth century.
Series III (Box 4): Miscellaneous.
Series three consists of small objects related to Kuyper and his contemporaries. [Note: The portrait card collection might go with a game board poster found in series VII (Box 14).]
Series IV (Box 6): Photographs and calendars.
This series consists of two calendars published by the Vrije Universiteit (one of which includes a number of images of Kuyper) and two photographs. One photograph is of an unidentified small child, and the other is of the Elberfelder Handels en Export Mij building.
Series V (Boxes 7-12): Portraits.
This series contains formal portraits (photographic, print, and cast metal) of Abraham Kuyper, other politicians and theologians.
Series VI (Boxes 13, 13a): Posters.
This series contains posters mentioning Kuyper or his organizations. Most of the posters advertize late twentieth and early twenty-first century conferences or exhibits on Kuyper.
Series VII (Boxes 14-15): Scrapbooks, 1927-1934.
These three scrapbooks of newspaper clippings were collected by an unidentified Dutch Pastor.
Series VIII (Box 16): Typescripts and other documents.
The bulk of this series consists of typescript notes on the lectures given by H.H. Kuyper (Abraham Kuyper’s son) for courses he taught. It also contains a folder which holds various postcards, a poster about Dutch words, and an article on this collection’s creator, Tjitze Kuipers.
Series IX: Oversized art objects and artifacts.
This part of the collection includes portraits, posters and furniture, all housed in art storage.
Unprocessed material:
Binders/notebooks of pamphlets arranged by subject
Boxes of papers/clippings arranged by subject
Processing Information
Reviewed and modified June 2010 by Kristen Nivling.
- Title
- The Tjitze Kuipers Collection on Abraham Kuyper
- Author
- Matthew Reeder
- Date
- January 2007
- Language of description
- Undetermined
- Script of description
- Code for undetermined script
- Language of description note
- English
Repository Details
Part of the Princeton Theological Seminary. Library. Special Collections Repository
Princeton Theological Seminary
Wright Library
25 Library Place
Princeton NJ 08540 USA
speccoll@ptsem.edu