Funding dried up, and the garden closed in 1826.īlume’s journey was not entirely fruitless, however. Blume assumed the position of director of the garden in 1823 with some confidence, but it proved misplaced. But Caspar Georg Carl Reinwardt, Blume’s predecessor as director of the botanical gardens at Buitenzorg (modern day Bogor) had run afoul of the King, as his Crown-funded cataloguing of Asian species of flower had not returned enough capital to The Hague. Java was, at the time, a Dutch colony, and colonial funds were often kind to botanists wanting to scour the Asian reaches of Holland’s occupying arm.

His work was entangled in the many branches of Dutch colonial enterprise, and also in funding disputes with King Willem I. In 1823, the aptly-named German-Dutch botanist, Carl Ludwig Blume, left his home in the Netherlands to explore Asia and carry out extensive studies of Javanese flora. PARTICULAR ‘BUTTERFLY ORCHID’ HELPED HER DISCOVER THE ESSENCE Using beautiful illustrations, it takes the reader on a journey along all that Kinderdijk has to offer.IN A SEARINGLY HONEST AND EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW AHEAD OF HERįIRST SOLO EXHIBITION IN THE UK, ISABELLE VAN ZEIJL TELLS MUTUALĪRT ABOUT HER JOURNEY OF TRANSFORMATION, AND HOW USING A The book ranges from the very first drainage system used in the Alblasserwaard, to the current computer controlled pumping stations. World Heritage provides the reader with a concise history of the various stages of water management in the Kinderdijk area. At Kinderdijk, all of these phases have been preserved in working order and can be admired in a unique setting. The original mediaeval drainage system of the Alblasserwaard was first superseded by polder mills # and these, in turn, gave way to pumping stations and sluices. Historical landscapeLooking at the Kinderdijk mills, one does not just see a gorgeous, traditional Dutch landscape, but also a reflection of various historical phases of water management in the Dutch polders. This world-famous complex, consisting of nineteen mills and an accompanying network of ditches, sluices and water storage, found its way onto UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 1997. In the Alblasserwaard, close to the cities of Rotterdam and Dordrecht, we find a prime example of this human inventiveness: the mill complex of Kinderdijk-Elshout. For centuries, the Dutch have either coexisted with water or come up with ingenious solutions to manage and contain it.

The Journey Home by Isabelle Holland