Netherlands

On 9 October 1676 Antonie van Leeuwenhoek – the ‘Father of Microbiology’ – presented his findings to the Royal Society.

As Jewish lapidaries were held in Nazi concentration camps, diamond sales soared in the US. Both sides saw gemstones as integral to the war effort. 

From 1650 onwards, writes Elka Schrijver, a Postmaster in Rotterdam organized Dutch seafaring mail.

Elka Schrijver describes the dramatic and bloody events of a sixteenth century siege of the Dutch city by a Habsburg army of Philip II.

W. Charnley describes how, on their route to the East Indies in the seventeenth century, the Dutch first came into dramatic contact with the mysterious Great South Land that is now Australia.

Off the Shetlands and along the English Channel, writes C.R. Boxer, Dutch East-Indiamen, wrecked by storm, are now being carefully salvaged.

In 1572, writes S.F.C. Moore, Brill was the scene of a dramatic action in the Dutch revolt against the rule of Spain.

Widespread fever followed military sloth, writes Antony Brett-James, and the fiasco on Walcheren brought down the tottering British Government.

Julia Jones examines The career of Willem van de Velde the Elder, the first official war artist.