Once - Histories

24/05/2026

I had the honour, and pleasure, of co-operating as historical researcher on the first VR museum of the Netherlands. This experience offers you the opportunity to walk around in Amsterdam in 1652. And to be honest, it is pretty amazing how realistic it is and how much historical details - that we researchers dug up - they managed to cram into the experience.

https://lnkd.in/eZiRk7ZP

29/04/2026

I contributed quite a lot of research to this project, opening soon in Amsterdam. The technology is amazing!

15/10/2025

Sometimes history slaps you in the face with irony. This is a screen shot from an amazing database giving thousands of slave voyages made across the Atlantic by European slave traders. The vessel in question here was owned by the WIC, the Dutch West India Company, and the vessel transported 8000 enslaved people from Africa to the Americas in the 1680's. Many died en route, with mortality rates of 10-20 percent on this vessel. 500 to almost 700 people were packed into this vessel in one go.

The irony? The name of the vessel was Vrijheid, 'Freedom' in Dutch. I am not sure for whom, but probably for her investors.

www.slavevoyages.org

02/06/2025

https://nos.nl/artikel/2569662-familiearchief-biedt-unieke-kijk-op-koloniaal-verleden-generaties-met-zorg-bewaard

I played a large role in the transition of this archive. It was a process of many years and a lot of work of which I am very, very proud.

De familiearchieven van de Swellengrebels, nu overgedragen aan het Rijksmuseum en het Nationaal Archief, laten zien hoe men toen naar het land en de bevolking keek.

03/04/2025

One of the projects I am involved in:

29/01/2025

So, it's been a long time since I shared some of my work here but this is a really exciting project. Together with the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands (RCE) and the Centro de Estudios Históricos from Chile we are working on translating and publishing a short Dutch manuscript from around 1640. It's most exciting feature is that it contains a lot of information on the native inhabitants of Chile, the Mapuche people (their name means 'people of the earth'). We even found a few words in their language that are not known today or from any other historical source. Cool!