Hermien’s herbarium

About ten years ago I noticed a trash pile of household goods on the sidewalk around the corner from us. Clearly, someone of age had passed away, and the flat needed to be emptied. I’m always drawn to these kind of things — for me, these simple household objects, used and treasured, have some sort of mystical meaning. Anyway — upon inspection of the trash, I noticed some vintage A3 folders. A few were empty, which I took to store architectural drawings, but there was also one which seemed to be filled with pressed flowers. Fun for the children to play with — I thought — so I took the pressed flower folder too.

Back home, the pressed portfolio, which was titled ‘Hermien — Herbarium’, turned out to contain a collection of beautifully conserved plants, weeds and flowers — all gathered in Indonesia between 1909 and 1917.

What a treasure! I telephoned the National Museum of Natural History here in the Netherlands to inform them of my find. They asked me to send photos, and then told me that even though Hermien’s collection was beautiful and very well preserved, it wasn’t especially rare. Apparently the hobby of herborium making was quite common in those times.

I kept Hermien’s work safely stored in my office for years, not knowing what to do with it, until the moment we built a new kitchen. I searched a nice, large piece of wall art for above the bench. I remembered Hermien’s herborium, had 36 compositions framed, and we hung them in a grid on the wall.

We don’t know who Hermien was, what her last name was, or if she had much family.
We think that maybe one of her children lived in our neighbourhood and passed away childless. Perhaps a faraway cousin came over to empty out the flat, dividing treasures from trash. This portfolio, stowed away somewhere in the back of a cabinet, clearly was considered trash.

It nearly was lost forever… Until it became this beautiful display on our kitchen wall. Displayed in all its glory, we now enjoy Hermien’s beautiful work, collected with so much care over 100 years ago, every single day. ♡

xxx Esther