Teylers Museum
Teyler's Museum is a little museum in Haarlem just outside Amsterdam. We probably would never have visited it, but we had an IAmsterdam City Card, which gave us free entrance. We were in Haarlem to see the Frans Hals Museum, and it was just a short walk up along the canal, so we gave it a try. It's a really fun museum!
The Museum is the Netherland's first and oldest museum, open to the public since 1748. Its founder and benifactor, Pieter Teyler, was a wealthy cloth merchant and banker who bequeathed his fortune for the advancement of religion, art, and science. The executors of Teyler's will decided to establish a centre for study and education. Under a single roof, it would house all manner of suitable artifacts, such as books, scientific instruments, drawings, fossils, and minerals. The concept was based on a revolutionary ideal derived from the Enlightenment: that people could discover the world independently, without coercion by church or state.