page_title: Rijksmuseum van Geologie en Mineralogie
section_title: C. Beets (1963-1977)
hierarchical_section_title: Rijksmuseum van Geologie en Mineralogie / History / C. Beets (1963-1977)
caption_attribution_description: Nederlands: Weeshuis: aanzicht This is an image of rijksmonument number 24895
context_page_description: The Rijksmuseum van Geologie en Mineralogie was a museum of geological and mineralogical collections. Up to 1878, geological and mineralogical collections formed part of Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie, the National Museum of Natural History. This museum, founded in 1820 and established at Leiden, was closely linked with the University there. One of the staff members used to be in charge of the geological collections. In 1893 the collection was moved into a new building at the Van der Werffpark/Garenmarkt as the Rijksmuseum van Geologie en Mineralogie, representing a great step forward. The RGM thus became completely independent and was no longer regarded as part of the Natural History Museum.
context_section_description: After his retirement P. C. Zwaan became acting director followed by C. Beets  who was appointed director of the RGM in 1963. Beets set himself to the task of making the RGM not only in name but also de facto the Dutch national geological museum and centre of research. He could put his plans into practice after the removal to the Hooglandse Kerkgracht in 1966.
  Intensive collecting campaigns were taken up, for instance in the eastern part of the Netherlands from Tertiary deposits of the Winterswijk-Almelo region; in the southern part from the continental Pleistocene of Tegelen; in Italy from Neogene fissure fillings in Gargano. Apart from these campaigns, Museum staff members went all over Europe on collecting trips or further afield: Canada, U.S.A., Jamaica, El Salvador, Algeria, Rhodesia, Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and Australia.
  In this period the RGM received much valuable material from other sources as well. To name a few important additions: Fossils and samples from numerous borings in the eastern part of the Netherlands, donated by the 'Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij'. Hundreds of ore and rock samples from Billiton and many other parts of the world, and about 1000 drilling samples from the Mbeya carbonatite of Tanzania, donated by the 'Billiton Maatschappij'. Some 6300 samples and about 5000 thin sections of sedimentary and crystalline rocks of the Oman Mountains, donated by the 'Shell Internationale Petroleum Maatschappij', The Hague.
  The collection of the late R. Lagaaij, containing thousands of bryozoan samples from all parts of the world, together with his extensive library. A comprehensive collection of fossils and rock specimens (a.o. that of Molengraaff's Borneo expedition 1893/94) from the Geological Institute of Groningen University. A large collection of fossils, notably foraminifera and rudists, and rock specimens from the Cretaceous and Tertiary of Jamaica, from the Geological Institute of the University of Amsterdam.
  Many thesis collections, presented by the Geological Institute of Leiden University.
  The collection of H.M.E. Schürmann (in part): Precambrian rocks of the Eastern Desert, Egypt.
  Beets resigned in 1977 and was followed by P.C. Zwaan as acting director.
  The Rijksmuseum van Geologie en Mineralogie merged  with the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie in 1984 into what eventually became Naturalis.
caption: 3rd Building: Hooglandse Kerkgracht
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