In April 2022 I contacted Roman Koot, librarian at the Rotterdamsch Leeskabinet, with a proposal to curate an exhibition about Erasmus. The idea for an exhibition emerged very early in my PhD project about Erasmus because I noticed that students and staff alike were rather unacquainted with the namesake of the university. Roman Koot responded enthusiastically and together with John Tholen, curator of special collections at Rotterdam Library, we embarked on the mission to create an exhibition where visitors would learn more about Erasmus and his relation to Rotterdam and the university. A year and a half later, the exhibition opened during a festive opening in which Sanne Steen, Ronald van Raak and Herman Gerritsen spoke about respectively the exhibition, Erasmus at the university, and the medal exhibition devoted to Erasmus by the Dutch Economic Medal Cabinet (NEPK). A parallel online exhibition, designed by Faye Kruithof, can be accessed here.
The exhibition is a cooperation between the Rotterdamsch Leeskabinet, Erasmus University Library, the Erasmus Collection of Libary Rotterdam, Erasmus School of Philosophy, and the Dutch Economic Medal Cabinet. The exhibition is sponsored by Comité Erasmus Icoon van Rotterdam and the EUR Lustrum.