Why this web

When I began researching the life and accomplishments of Antony van Leeuwenhoek, I was struck by:

the small amount of information
the amount of contradictory information

Why wasn't there more information about this fascinating, important man? What are the correct facts about his life and accomplishments? This web site tries to respond to both questions by presenting:

attractive, interesting information
correct information

Thanks!

Constant Kool

I would like to acknowledge Constant Kool for helping me begin to learn the Dutch language and for guiding me through the intricacies of Dutch culture and academia.

Gerda van Dyke was most helpful with the anatomical terms in the Send-Brieven / Epistles.

The research for this web was made possible through a Spring 2008 sabbatical grant and a Spring 2009 leave from Medaille College in Buffalo, New York, US.

These leaves enabled me to live in Leiden, the Netherlands, an hour's bike ride from van Leeuwenhoek's home in Delft and a short walk from the Boerhaave Museum, which houses the most comprehensive van Leeuwenhoek collection.

Early on in my research, I gave a talk in the History of Medicine lecture series at the University of Amsterdam's Academisch Medisch Centrum at the invitation of its librarian, Lieuwe Kool. The positive reception gave me confidence that this buitenlander, foreigner, could tell today's Dutch people something interesting about their countryman van Leeuwenhoek.

boerhaave logo

I am grateful to all of these institutions for their support.

About this web

Site Map

This web has 26 pages. They are all linked to each other via the navigation area at the top of each page.

The upper row, in blue, links to the welcome page and 10 other pages, each associated with a video.

The lower row, in beige, links to 15 supplementary pages.

Colophon

To make this web, I used Adobe's Dreamweaver. For image editing, Corel's Paint Shop Pro. For the videos, Apple's Final Cut Pro.

I use Apache (version 1.3.34) server software on the Linux (Redhat version 2.4.36) operating system. The page code, scripts, style sheets, videos, and image files sit on a server in Fayetteville, North Carolina, at Advanced Internet Technologies.

Copyright

This license says that if you use material you find here that isn't under copyright elsewhere:

give me credit
don't charge money for it without talking to me first
share with others as I am sharing with you

Copyrighting something like Lens on Leeuwenhoek, which is essentially a bit stream, is not as obvious as it may appear. Read Eben Moglen's Anarchism Triumphant: Free Software and the Death of Copyright in the August 1999 issue of First Monday. For more background, try Moglen's 2007 Framing the Debate: Free Expression versus Intellectual Property, the Next Fifty Years and some of the articles at the Free Software Foundation.

Lens on Leeuwenhoek is not sponsored by or affiliated with any owners of the specific trademarks used here, including those in hyperlinks. I have made a good faith effort to comply with the "fair use" clause of U.S. copyright law. Any copyrighted material on Lens on Leeuwenhoek is credited, usually linked, and used in limited amounts for not-for-profit educational purposes.

If you hold the copyright or trademark to any material on Lens on Leeuwenhoek and feel as though my use does not conform to the fair use provisions, email me at danderson at medaille.edu and I will remove the material immediately until we resolve the issue.

Images

This web contains many images. Currently, the use of images in Internet resources is a matter of debate and discussion. I am making a good-faith effort to obey copyright laws.

Where possible, I use images I made myself with my own camera.

After that, I use public domain images, usually those found at Wikipedia.org's Wikimedia Commons and labeled: "This image (or other media file) is in the public domain because its copyright has expired."

The hi-res images of paintings from the Dutch Golden Age are used by written permission from Fred Ross at the Art Renewal Center.

I recommend ARC for an unparalleled collection of high-resolution images as well as a provocative philosophy: The Great 20th Century Art Scam.

If you notice that I have erred on a copyright or if you are the owner of a copyright and have not yet received a request for permission, please contact me.

site est: June 2009 / page last modified: September 1, 2009
by Douglas Anderson / © 2009
http://LensOnLeeuwenhoek.net/about.htm