Collection

The oldest objects in the collection of the museum are tools from the Stone Age, some four thousand years ago. From this period in history the site of Wageningen was continuously inhabited.
The first archaeological excavations in Wageningen and surroundings, as elsewhere in the country, took place in the late nineteenth / early twentieth century. Scientific research and excavations continued from that time until the present day.
Recently many traces and objects from the early Middle Ages emerged, providing us with more knowledge about the Frankish and Merovingian period, that preceded the time in which Wageningen received her city rights (1263).

The permanent exhibition in the History Room of the museum shows the rich history of Wageningen, starting from the Stone Age untill mid twentieth century.  Centerpiece is a large scale model of the city, as it was in the seventeenth century when the fortifications of Wageningen were at their strongest.

The specific role Wageningen played at the end of World War II is represented in another permanent exhibition: the Wageningen Peace Negotiations 1945. The town was chosen to stage the final negotiations once Germany had expressed their intention to surrender. Thus, the capitulation by the German occupying forces in the Netherlands, in Wageningen, became an event of national importance.

Tools from the so called Wageningen Bronze Age Treasure.

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Children marveling at the scale model of the seventeenth century city of Wageningen.