Nelly has always been interested in common farm animals like chickens, cows and horses. “Probably because my father was a poultry farmer and also kept a cow for the milk and a horse mainly for recreational purposes and a little bit of work,” she explains. “So I grew up with these animals.”
The foundations for the study of animal husbandry, currently known as Animal Sciences, were laid as early as 1861, when W.C.H. Staring was sent abroad to study how animal husbandry was taught elsewhere. Two years later, J.R. Thorbecke launched a bill to enable the establishment of higher agricultural education in the Netherlands.
The Agricultural College started in 1918 with five courses: agriculture, colonial agriculture, horticulture, forestry and colonial forestry. The agriculture course consisted of four specialisations: plant cultivation, animal husbandry, dairy production and rural economics. Initially, the Agricultural College focused on the cultivation techniques, technologies and economics of agricultural production. The college’s education and research developed in parallel with the increasing insight that society as a whole was actually dependent on various biological and physical factors, which before then were thought to be only the domain of the farmer.
Whereas the focus in the beginning was ‘more’, the emphasis gradually shifted to ‘better’. The insight grew that if we wanted to keep producing, we would have to do it in a way that was good for nature and the environment and socially responsible:
‘To explore the potential of nature to improve the quality of life’, as the mission of Wageningen University & Research goes.
Nelly’s selection of material from Special Collections includes images of chickens, cows and horses. The selection focuses on images of the animals themselves, and not their housings, aetiology or economic conditions.
From: Handleiding bij het groote model van het paard, aanschouwelijk voorgesteld door vijf beweegbare platen / Eugenius Antonius Ludovicus Quadekker. Deventer : Kluwer, [ca. 1910]
The images of the anatomy of the horse were used in Animal Science education. Quadekker was born in Axel, Zeeuws-Vlaanderen, in 1854 and died in 1938 in Nijmegen. Quadekker also published a book about horse races painted by Otto Eerelman.
From: Collection des modèles anatomiques de cheval, vache, mouton et humain /L.T.J. Auzoux. [Place of publication not identified] : [publisher not identified], 1876-1891.
Since 1876 Wageningen UR has owned paper-mache anatomic models made by Dr Louis Auzoux (1797-1880) including a life-size model of a stallion. The anatomical model of the horse is made of painted paper mache and iron wire. The horse’s abdomen can be opened by raising up head and shoulders. Twelve parts of the horse are dissectible: the left leg, the left side of the head, the penis; in the upper abdominal cavity: bladder and prostate, large intestine, small intestine, stomach, liver and kidneys, diaphragm, left lung, right lung and the heart. You can also find more photos of the horse in the WUR Image Collections, collection Anatomical models.
Wageningen University the horse is sometimes used in Animal Sciences classes. The model of the stallion is on display at the entrance of the Forum Library.
From: C. S. Th. van Gink’s Poultry paintings / C.S.Th. van Gink, A.W. van Wulfften Palthe and P.C.M. Simons. Beekbergen : Dutch Branch of the World’s Poultry Science Association (WPSA), 1992.
The book with beautiful poultry paintings by van Gink was presented to the participants of the 19th World’s Poultry Congress, Amsterdam 20-24 sept. 1992. Van Gink (1880-1968) was a Dutch painter specialised in poultry paintings.
Make the puzzle of the Dutch bantams!
From: De koe : groot model (half levensgroot), aanschouwelijk uit- en inwendig voorgesteld door beweegbare platen / H.M. Kroon. Deventer : Kluwer, [ca. 1912]
In the WUR Image Collections you’ll also find drawings of the organs and the muscles of the cow. The plates were used in animal husbandry classes.
Special Collections holds 72 beautiful images of G. Pusch and W. Schmidt. Berlin: Paul Paery, 1900-1910. The so-called Wandtafeln zur Beurteilung des Rindes can be seen in the WUR Image Collections in detail.
