2
1 Prelude and Framework
mathematician Willem Kapteyn (1849–1927), teacher at a secondary school
was appointed professor at the National University of Utrecht. 1
Jacobus Cornelius Kapteyn (1851–1922) was at that time only 26 years old,
although when he took office in February 1878 he was 27 years. Figure 1.1
shows the top half of the first page of the relevant issue together with the text of
the decrees, which can be found further down on the first page. Kapteyn had
been born and raised in the city of Barneveld in the center of the Netherlands,
where his parents ran a boarding school for boys. He had studied mathematics,
physics and astronomy in Utrecht, where he had in 1975 obtained a PhD with
a thesis in the area of applied mathematics. Since that he had been employed
at the Sterrewacht Leiden, where he was an ‘observator’, which means that
he was responsible for the actual carrying out of work at the telescopes. The
photograph in Fig. 1.2 shows Kapteyn and his parents, brothers and sisters,
and their partners. Kapteyn and his brother Willem appear just to the right
of the middle with another brother wearing a hat in between them; Jacobus is
the one on the left of these two; his later wife is not in the picture yet.
This appointment of Jacobus Kapteyn was a direct consequence of the
Higher Education Act, which had been passed the year before.This law changed
the primary task of the university: from an educational institute where young
men were educated to be scholars with knowledge of science, it became an
institution where research was carried out alongside scientific teaching. As a
result, each of the three government-funded universities would have its own
professor of astronomy. The number of universities in the Netherlands was
also increased to four; while a few years earlier it was expected that one of
the three state-financed universities at Leiden, Groningen and Utrecht would
be closed—and the expectation was that it would be that of Groningen. Not
only did all three continue, but the Amsterdam ‘Athenaeum Illustre’ was finally granted the status of (municipally financed) university. Amsterdam did
not get a professor of astronomy and it was not until 1921 that an astronomy
lecturer was appointed. The number of subjects taught in academic education,
government funding of universities and the number of professors all roughly
doubled.
1 The universities of Leiden, Groningen and Utrecht were a ‘Rijks-universiteit’ (funded by the national
government), sometimes translated as ‘State University’ (although ‘National University’ would be more
appropriate). Leiden and later Utrecht in the 1990s dropped the ‘Rijks’ prefix, because they felt the
translation ‘State University’ would suggest mediocrity. In Groningen, the Rector Magnificus and Deans
of the Faculties—of which I was one—felt the ‘Rijks’ was appropriate and chose to keep it, but decided
that ‘University of Groningen’ would be the official English name.
1 Prelude and Framework
mathematician Willem Kapteyn (1849–1927), teacher at a secondary school
was appointed professor at the National University of Utrecht. 1
Jacobus Cornelius Kapteyn (1851–1922) was at that time only 26 years old,
although when he took office in February 1878 he was 27 years. Figure 1.1
shows the top half of the first page of the relevant issue together with the text of
the decrees, which can be found further down on the first page. Kapteyn had
been born and raised in the city of Barneveld in the center of the Netherlands,
where his parents ran a boarding school for boys. He had studied mathematics,
physics and astronomy in Utrecht, where he had in 1975 obtained a PhD with
a thesis in the area of applied mathematics. Since that he had been employed
at the Sterrewacht Leiden, where he was an ‘observator’, which means that
he was responsible for the actual carrying out of work at the telescopes. The
photograph in Fig. 1.2 shows Kapteyn and his parents, brothers and sisters,
and their partners. Kapteyn and his brother Willem appear just to the right
of the middle with another brother wearing a hat in between them; Jacobus is
the one on the left of these two; his later wife is not in the picture yet.
This appointment of Jacobus Kapteyn was a direct consequence of the
Higher Education Act, which had been passed the year before.This law changed
the primary task of the university: from an educational institute where young
men were educated to be scholars with knowledge of science, it became an
institution where research was carried out alongside scientific teaching. As a
result, each of the three government-funded universities would have its own
professor of astronomy. The number of universities in the Netherlands was
also increased to four; while a few years earlier it was expected that one of
the three state-financed universities at Leiden, Groningen and Utrecht would
be closed—and the expectation was that it would be that of Groningen. Not
only did all three continue, but the Amsterdam ‘Athenaeum Illustre’ was finally granted the status of (municipally financed) university. Amsterdam did
not get a professor of astronomy and it was not until 1921 that an astronomy
lecturer was appointed. The number of subjects taught in academic education,
government funding of universities and the number of professors all roughly
doubled.
1 The universities of Leiden, Groningen and Utrecht were a ‘Rijks-universiteit’ (funded by the national
government), sometimes translated as ‘State University’ (although ‘National University’ would be more
appropriate). Leiden and later Utrecht in the 1990s dropped the ‘Rijks’ prefix, because they felt the
translation ‘State University’ would suggest mediocrity. In Groningen, the Rector Magnificus and Deans
of the Faculties—of which I was one—felt the ‘Rijks’ was appropriate and chose to keep it, but decided
that ‘University of Groningen’ would be the official English name.