Driehonderdjarig herdenking van de oprichting van het Athenaeum Illustre te Amsterdam 1932 1932

This bronze medal commemorating the tercentenary of the Athenaeum Illustre in Amsterdam was created in 1932 by Hildo Krop. It encapsulates the intertwined relationship between education, commerce, and civic identity in the Netherlands. The image of a ship sailing on the seas immediately evokes the country’s global trading networks of the seventeenth century, when the Athenaeum Illustre was founded, a time of Dutch colonial expansion. This institution, later to become the University of Amsterdam, thus has its origins in the economic and cultural ambitions of a burgeoning mercantile empire. By 1932, when this medal was made, the Netherlands was grappling with its legacy as a colonial power, and with growing social inequality at home. To properly understand the values and meanings inscribed in this medal, we need to look into archives of the university and the city of Amsterdam. This reveals the complex historical forces that shaped not only the Athenaeum Illustre, but also the very idea of Dutch national identity.