De Groote Museum

 De Groote Museum (The Great Museum) is centered around the concept that everything is connected. It's part of the Artis Royal Zoo complex (like Micropia) but has a separate entrance and fee (included in the Museum Card). 

The museum was closed for 75 years (not a typo!) and reopened in 2022. It used to be the  'Main Building' or 'Zoological Museum' for Artis. You can read more about it's scientific use at their website!

ARTIS honorary member and professor of Anatomy Willem Vrolik (1801-1863) gave lectures on the autopsies he performed on animals that had died in the zoo. He published the very first scientific description of various animal species. After the autopsy, the animals were prepared and ended up in the museum. At that time, ARTIS mainly wanted to collect and understand nature, in order to promote knowledge in an accessible way.

The main hall has a nice area for rest (and maybe yoga). Everything needs rest! There's a soundscape that plays through the museum, variously playing a thunderstorm (complete with the lights flashing for lightning) or a tree falling in the woods. It's very cool (though it made my three-year old a lil nervous). 

 The second floor of the hall has various maps showing how different cultures shaped the world according to their own views and interests. It also has a moss covered Olfactory Tunnel where various smells are perfumed in to elicit different memories. The least nasty smell (to me) was the manure. 

The first section is all about the skeleton. There's an awesome display of skeletons showing the spines colored in red, and the feet of various animals, all highlighting homologous structures. The boys got to play with a machine that mapped their spine from their movements. I really liked the spine/skull looking at the phone. Such an unnatural angle I'm always in!

There is a section on Swarming and group behaviors. I loved the bird swarm installation. 

The second floor had excellent interactive stations to listen to various places on Earth. Hobbit listened to forest sounds pre-and-post logging. Nemo loved listening to the rain (which could be increased through thunderstorm to After the Rain). 

We had another reflective session while Hobbit typed his Big Question on the typewriter. It was an interesting museum with a format I hadn't experienced before. I like the backdrop of interconnectedness.