The Oval Room: Teylers’ first museum gallery

Leendert Viervant designed the Boek- en Konstzael for art and science. The room opened in 1784 behind Pieter Teyler’s house.

Museum Magazine · 18 October 2026

Historic black-and-white photograph of the Oval Room with its central display case and books on the upper gallery. — The Oval Room with its central display case and upper gallery in 1895. Archive photograph. Photo: Johannes Goedeljee / Noord-Hollands Archief, CC0. Johannes Goedeljee / Noord-Hollands Archief · CC0 · Image source

Pieter Teyler van der Hulst died in 1778. The five directors of the foundation he left behind decided to build a museum room behind his Haarlem home. In 1779 they commissioned Leendert Viervant to design the Boek- en Konstzael. It opened in 1784 as the first part of Teylers Museum.

The room is now known as the Oval Room. The museum calls it the oldest museum gallery in the Netherlands: it was designed as a space for a public museum. Viervant chose an oval floor plan and a neoclassical design. His drawings show the care he took over the ceiling and the cornices of the cabinets.

Historic architectural drawing showing a section and oval floor plan of the museum room. — Section and floor plan of the Oval Room after Leendert Viervant’s design. Archive image: Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Image source

The original layout brought different collections together. Scientific instruments stood in display cabinets on the ground floor; books occupied the shelves around the upper gallery. Fossils and minerals were kept in drawers below the bookshelves and in the large central cabinet. Drawings and prints were initially stored there too.

The central cabinet first had a flat top for experiments and could move along copper rails. Moving it made room for demonstrations with the large electrostatic machine. Display cases for minerals were added to the cabinet in 1801 and 1802; over time the room became more of a gallery for a wider museum audience.

Admission in the early years was regulated. Directors and members of the learned societies could enter at any time, while other visitors had to arrange a visit. Haarlem residents could come on Tuesdays from 10:00 to 13:00. A visitors’ book was introduced in 1789. As the collections grew, a separate reading room opened in 1826. The Oval Room survived and was restored in 2010–2011.

Teylers Museum is at Spaarne 16 in Haarlem. It opens Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 17:00 and closes on Mondays. Adult admission is €18.50; children aged five and under and Museumkaart holders enter free. Tickets for children aged six to seventeen cost €2.50.