History
On 2 September, it was 100 years ago that Tjeerd de Jong, a retired cattle farmer in Westermeer near Joure, founded a study foundation partly in the name of his deceased brother Reinder de Jong. He did so by contributing all his possessions, their farm and a modest capital. The brothers were childless and with the loan they wanted to support the education and study of their nephews, nieces and descendants, descended from their grandparents Herre Tjeerds Rinia *1754 and Reinskje Sybrands van der Sluys *1763, proprietors in Cornwerd.
Symposium/Webinar
On 2 October, this centenary was celebrated with a symposium in the Fries Scheepvaart Museum (FSM). It could also be followed online as a webinar, allowing the growing number of ‘borrowers’ spread worldwide, especially Brazil, to participate remotely. The FSM was chosen as the location for this festive event. The houses on Kleinzand, in which the museum was established, were once partly inhabited by ancestors of the present feudal lords from the families ten Cate (Sneek), Halbertsma (Sneek) and Kingma (Makkum).
Via this link the symposium can be watched again: [link follows shortly].
The welcoming word from the chairman:
The concluding word from the secretary:
Book
At the symposium – led by presenter Anne Jan Toornstra – VU historian Floris van Berckel Smit will be interviewed about his research and book that was recently published: 100 years Foundation Gebroeders de Jong’s, 1921-2021. It is by no means a classic jubilee book, but rather a description of his research into the development and functioning of a Frisian Leen, its management culture and governance in a changing Netherlands. In the first century, more than 250 study grants, so-called pensions, were issued.
The book as PDF (in Dutch):
Scientists and musicians received pensions
The recipients of pensions were also interviewed. The Groningen professor Tjalling Halbertsma was interviewed about what his pensions meant to him personally when he wrote his dissertation about the remains of Christian culture in Inner Mogolia. Others appearing are musicians Rosina Fabius, Dieuwke Mink van der Molen and Ellie Nimerowski, who received pensions for their conservatoire studies. The oldest living pension recipient, nuclear physicist Jan van Erp* 1929, now living in Chicago, is online. In the difficult post-war years, he was the only pension recipient of the Leen. They made the difference for him between being able to study and not being able to study, he says in Floris van Berckel Smit’s book.
