14
2 Boarding School and University
ognized birds not only by their appearance, but also by their call or song. He
also kept rabbits; he earned money for their food by selling pretzels at school
and picking up the newspaper for the minister and delivering it to him. Henriette Hertzsprung–Kapteyn tells in her biography [1] that he once caught an
owl and kept it in the attic. He had heard that owls were blind by day and
wanted to check that out. He stretched wires through the room, which the owl,
when released, could easily evade. Kapteyn might have become a biologist or
ornithologist if he had not, at the age of fourteen, been given a star chart or
globe by his older sister Albertina Maria (Bertamie) (1847–1927), who had
been to England. With that, one could identify constellations at night. The gift
inspired him to create his own star chart, which he did with great dedication
and effort. He carefully cut the brightest stars (of the first magnitude) 3 out
of gold-colored paper, the ones of the second magnitude out of silver paper
and the one of the third he drew accurately with white paint. This map (see
Fig. 2.2) is now located in the Kapteyn Room in the Kapteyn Astronomical
Institute of the University of Groningen. Kapteyn’s interest in the starry sky
was aroused and he read in his father’s library anything about the stars he could
lay his hands on. In Henriette Hertzsprung–Kapteyn’s biography [1] we read
that his father noticed this interest and bought him ‘a big telescope’ and set it
up in the tower room. This is probably the structure at the back of the picture
in Fig. 2.1. A brochure from that time in the archives of the municipality
of Barneveld also mentions the presence of an ‘observatory’ at the boarding
school.
As a young teenager, Kapteyn thought a lot about social reforms. His daughter says in her biography that he talked about this with his mother, who was,
however, far too practical for that. She would have said, ‘And now would
you like to help reform the world?’. To which young Kapteyn responded: ‘Yes,
Mother, if I can with my limited powers get out of the way just one little straw,
I will be satisfied.’ At the same time, he must have come to doubt the faith of
his parents. He could not accept the dogmatism of it, the lack of inspiration
and warmth. For him, faith in his own freedom and respect for the freedom of
others assumed a central position. He acquainted himself with other religions;
for example, he knew a Jewish boy, with whom he took part in the Feast of
Tabernacles. He developed a vision in which people (at least, men) of all ranks
and positions should be treated in the same way.
In the biography of the Groningen ecclesiastical professor of practical theology, Aart Jan Theodorus Jonker (1851–1928) by Maarten van Rhijn (18881966) [28], we come across a passage about Kapteyn. Jonker had retired in 1909
3 See Sect. 3.2 for the definition of magnitudes of stars.
2 Boarding School and University
ognized birds not only by their appearance, but also by their call or song. He
also kept rabbits; he earned money for their food by selling pretzels at school
and picking up the newspaper for the minister and delivering it to him. Henriette Hertzsprung–Kapteyn tells in her biography [1] that he once caught an
owl and kept it in the attic. He had heard that owls were blind by day and
wanted to check that out. He stretched wires through the room, which the owl,
when released, could easily evade. Kapteyn might have become a biologist or
ornithologist if he had not, at the age of fourteen, been given a star chart or
globe by his older sister Albertina Maria (Bertamie) (1847–1927), who had
been to England. With that, one could identify constellations at night. The gift
inspired him to create his own star chart, which he did with great dedication
and effort. He carefully cut the brightest stars (of the first magnitude) 3 out
of gold-colored paper, the ones of the second magnitude out of silver paper
and the one of the third he drew accurately with white paint. This map (see
Fig. 2.2) is now located in the Kapteyn Room in the Kapteyn Astronomical
Institute of the University of Groningen. Kapteyn’s interest in the starry sky
was aroused and he read in his father’s library anything about the stars he could
lay his hands on. In Henriette Hertzsprung–Kapteyn’s biography [1] we read
that his father noticed this interest and bought him ‘a big telescope’ and set it
up in the tower room. This is probably the structure at the back of the picture
in Fig. 2.1. A brochure from that time in the archives of the municipality
of Barneveld also mentions the presence of an ‘observatory’ at the boarding
school.
As a young teenager, Kapteyn thought a lot about social reforms. His daughter says in her biography that he talked about this with his mother, who was,
however, far too practical for that. She would have said, ‘And now would
you like to help reform the world?’. To which young Kapteyn responded: ‘Yes,
Mother, if I can with my limited powers get out of the way just one little straw,
I will be satisfied.’ At the same time, he must have come to doubt the faith of
his parents. He could not accept the dogmatism of it, the lack of inspiration
and warmth. For him, faith in his own freedom and respect for the freedom of
others assumed a central position. He acquainted himself with other religions;
for example, he knew a Jewish boy, with whom he took part in the Feast of
Tabernacles. He developed a vision in which people (at least, men) of all ranks
and positions should be treated in the same way.
In the biography of the Groningen ecclesiastical professor of practical theology, Aart Jan Theodorus Jonker (1851–1928) by Maarten van Rhijn (18881966) [28], we come across a passage about Kapteyn. Jonker had retired in 1909
3 See Sect. 3.2 for the definition of magnitudes of stars.