People of the road – Travellers in Drenthe
From 16 March, the Drents Museum will present People of the road – Travellers in Drenthe.
In the exhibition you will get to know caravan dwellers from Drenthe across different periods. From pedlars to seasonal workers and from P. Kremer, who drove his caravan into Assen in 1876, to well-known contemporary travellers, such as football coach Joseph Oosting from Emmen.
We have created this exhibition in collaboration with travellers from Coevorden, Emmen and Hoogeveen. People of the road – Travellers in Drenthe tells the story of travellers in three chronological parts: from the arrival of the first migrant workers, pedlars and craftsmen, through the time when travelling with caravans was commonplace, to the world of today's travellers. Attention is also paid to the Sinti and Roma.
Along the Lord's roads
Many people think that our ancestors were very sedentary. That image is not correct. For centuries, people have travelled across Drenthe in search of work or trade. Part of the exhibition People of the road – Travellers in Drenthe deals with the important role played by migrant labour and itinerant trade in Drenthe since the late Middle Ages.
The Drents Museum has created the exhibition in collaboration with a group of travellers from Drenthe. Annie Veenstra-Hendriks from Coevorden comes from a family with a large recycling company. Marie Smit, Nicole Bakker and Harmanda van Veen have been campaigning for more caravan sites in Emmen for years with their working group De Rolleman. Jan Bauer sits on the municipal council in Hoogeveen. Here, he champions the interests of caravan dwellers on housing and social issues, among other things. Together with the other members of the People of the road working group, he and his father Bart have contributed to the content and set-up of the exhibition.
Living on wheels
As more and more roads were paved in the 19th century, the caravan made its appearance. The caravan was a lot more comfortable to travel with and made it possible to take the whole family along. The exhibition People of the road – Travellers in Drenthe paints a picture of the first caravan dwellers. Special attention is paid to the fate of travellers and the Sinti and Roma during the Second World War.
The caravan feeling
Finally, the exhibition introduces you to Drenthe travellers of today. Two Drenthe filmmakers went in search of 'the caravan feeling' in a series of personal interviews. What are the travellers proud of, what unites them and how do they see their future? The visitor gets a glimpse into the world of Drenthe travellers.
Travellers in perspective
The Drents Museum is making a podcast for the exhibition and a book will be published in collaboration with Waanders publishers. In the book, People of the road – Travellers in Drenthe, curator Jan van Zijverden of the Drents Museum and researcher Hilde Boelema of the Drents Archief examine assumptions about caravan dwellers from a historical perspective and paint a picture of the lives of travellers in Drenthe at different times. An authentic caravan built by students from the Alfa College will also travel through Drenthe, just as it did before the introduction of the Caravan Sites Act in 1968.
Related pages
- The Largest Doll’s House in the Netherlands
- Microcosm - The world in a Wunderkammer
- Menyala (online exhibition)
- Labyrinthia
