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Taking a look at some spectacular spectacles in the TRC collection, by Mayte Van den Broeck, volunteer at the TRC

Today I want to take a look at some spectacular spectacles from the late 19th to mid-20th century. I myself, like many others, wear glasses on the daily basis, yet looking at the wide variety of styles and types of glasses in the collection, I realised how little I know of how they developed over the centuries. So I want to take you along on my brief dive into the history of some types of glasses.

Pair of spectacles, 1920s, The Netherlands (TRC 2022.3091b).

The invention and popularisation of glasses came about gradually, with the earliest known examples being attributed to different people, time periods and places. Some scholars credit the Romans with learning to use glass in such a way as to improve their vision, through the use of small spherical magnifying glasses. Whereas Abbas Ibn Firnas, an inventor from The Emirate of Córdoba is believed to be the inventor of the first corrective lenses in the form of reading stones. Jumping ahead, 13th century Italian Renaissance paintings depict scholars with handheld frames or perch-style spectacles. They were accessible primarily by the wealthy at the time, and were a status symbol conveying intelligence and affluence.

The first load of more than 400 boxes being moved from Hogewoerd 164 to temporary storage, 7 November 2025.It's been quite a time at the TRC. A few weeks ago we heard about the discovery of (more) asbestos in various parts of the TRC’s new home at the Boerhaavelaan (known to us as B6). We are not allowed into the whole of the building and garden for all of November, while the asbestos is being removed.

An understandable, but frustrating ban, which has caused problems with respect to the move from Hogewoerd to B6, as well as building and painting requirements in the new building. Not to mention the fact we were supposed to be out of our current building by the end of December.

Fortunately, the owner of the Hogewoerd building has just said we can stay there until mid-January, which will make a considerable difference. All being well (fingers and toes crossed) the work on the internal needs of our new home will start on the 5th December and we can officially move in by mid-January.

Tetouan kaftan, displayed in the Bab Oqla Museum, Tetouan.A current highlight from the TRC Collection (TRC 2023.0531)) is this Moroccan kaftan, dating from the late 19th or early 20th century. It is made out of Syrian satin silk and beautifully embroidered with gold and silver threads.

This type of kaftan used to be worn by women in the Tétouan region (northeastern Morocco) and is thus often referred to as a “Tétouan kaftan” (Caftan de Tétouan).

This style, especially with its large sleeves, is rarely worn by younger generations. It may originally have been worn together with other items of clothing, such as an embroidered bolero that was cinched at the waist with a belt.

For the last year or so I have been muttering about having a textile garden at the TRC’s new home on the Boerhaavelaan (B6), Leiden. This is not a new idea and various museums, botanical gardens and local projects throughout Europe have set up dye plant gardens, such as that at the Palazzo Madama (Turin, Italy), Botanical Gardens, Cambridge, England , as well as the Amsterdam Colour Gardens. The main thing that was needed was a suitable garden and B6 gives us that.

Boerhaavelaan 6, from the garden.However, we do not just want a 'mere' dye garden, instead we want to extend it to cover the world of textiles, including fibres, dyes and related items such as seeds used for decoration or nuts used for buttons. Not all the plants can easily be grown in Leiden (some require desert conditions, which rainy Leiden certainly does not have!), nor do we have a greenhouse (yet) where such plants could be grown. However, there are many plants we can start with and gradually expand as we get more experience over the next few years.

Another difference is that we do not want just pretty plants all in a row (to paraphrase an English nursery rhyme [Mary Mary Quite Contrary]), we want to use them. Such as having a patch of flax as part of the Crafts Council Nederlands Project, 1m2 flax, here in the Netherlands. There is also a group on the Boerhaavelaan who are very keen natural dyers, so perhaps we can grow a range of plants that they can use (think onions, weld, madder, etc). Then there are various schools in the neighbourhood, so perhaps setting up a dye plant project with them as part of sustainability? The plan is also to have the garden open to the general public during the office hours of the TRC.

It has been a busy time at the TRC, thanks to various activities, meetings, applying for funds (successfully!), workshops and courses, preparing manuscripts for publication, more meetings, as well as trying to sort out the paperwork, building activities, plans, etc, involved in moving an institute such as the TRC to larger premises (Boerhaavelaan 6). Below are some of the things that have been happening over the last few weeks, in more or less chronological order. The illustrations in this blog reflect the wide diversity of the TRC collection.

Bundle of bobbin lace (edging) from Sri Lanka, 1982. The lace was ordered by Hélène Nauta-Barge (a former occupant of Boerhaave 6) from a group in Sri Lanka with the intention of selling it in the Netherlands to raise money for the lace makers (TRC 2025.1497).

We are continuing to get ready for the move to the urban villa just behind the Leiden railway station, and it is now reckoned about 4000 boxes, mainly for the collection, need to be shifted! The library, for example, is just about packed and there are well over 350 boxes, each weighing 10kg (as requested by the removal company).

From January until April 2025, I conducted extensive fieldwork in Cairo on the subject of khayamiya, for my research master’s thesis in Religious Studies at Utrecht University.

Fig. 1. Ramadan stall in Mohandiseen, Cairo, 2025. Photograph by Christina de Korte.

Khayamiya represents an appliqué technique that is primarily used for decorating panels for large, handmade tents, but the technique is nowadays also used for all kinds of other objects, such as tote bags and cushion covers.

Fig. 1. Modern vyshyvanka recently donated to the TRC. Kyiv, Ukraine, polyester, machine embroidered (TRC 2025.0149).If there is one thing I have learned about dress while volunteering at the TRC, it is how inextricably linked clothing is to identity. Dress is a physical marker of identity. It can embody the inexpressible—the sense of belonging to a specific culture, to a distinctive history, and to a specific country. All this carried in a piece of cloth.

Yet it still amazes me how emotive and political clothing can be. The link between identity and dress may become even stronger when that identity is perceived as under threat.

This was brought home to me yet again on a recent Instagram post. The post was from a very upset Ukrainian woman. She was reposting a photograph of a densely embroidered woman’s traditional skirt and blouse. In the original post, the ensemble had been identified as Russian.

Two visitors in front of Boerhaavelaan 6.We have just experienced the Open Monumentendag  (Open Monuments weekend; 13-14 September 2025) at the TRC’s new home, Boerhaavelaan 6 (known as B6 at the TRC), here in Leiden, just behind the railway station.The building has recently been acquired by the Stichting Monumenten Bezit, which will shortly, also thanks to Leiden Council, make it available to the TRC.

It was the first time this historic building had been open to the public and we were involved in such an event. It was a steep learning curve, but great fun, both for us and for the volunteers and organisers of the Monumentendag.

The new TRC home, view from the garden.On Saturday B6 was open from 12.00 until 17.00 and on Sunday from 10.00 until 17.00. On both days there was a constant flow of people, much to the amazement and delight of all of us.  On Saturday afternoon there were 313 visitors, while Sunday saw well over 650 (I have yet to receive the exact number).

This means that, in total, nearly 1000 people came to see the villa. There were guided tours with a brief introduction being given of its intriguing history, or people could simply wander around the house. As somebody said, the history of the 20th century is encapsulated in this urban villa, which was home to the Barge family (Prof. Barge was the Rector Magnificus of Leiden University from 1937-1938) for nearly 100 years.