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O + O + U is my vehicle to present and offer my products and services. Having worked for various government organizations, NGOs and companies, I am now reactivating previous threads and adding new ones. On these pages you can view my work as a historian and writer, as a designer and producer of furniture and other objects, and as a not-professional but enthusiastic painter. I work  for the satisfaction it provides myself, but of course I am even happier if my work is being published or commissioned. 

 

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In 1985  obtained my masterdegree als historian in Modern Asian History from Amsterdam University. As Municipal Archivist/ Director of the Amsterdam City Archives and National Archivist/ Director of the Dutch National Archives in The Hague I have written numerous columns and articles for professional magazines on topics such as public accountability, open accesibility of information and digital sustainability. Over the past three years I have researched and written about Colonial Psychiatry in the Dutch East Indies., My book will be published in February 2026, by publishing house Boom in Amsterdam. The book interweaves professional and personal history in the historical context of  the Dutch East Indies in the period 1900 - 1940. My grandfather C.F. Engelhard, was a psychiatrist on Java 1916-1925. In May 2024 I was invited to present my findings to the historical department of Yogyakarta Gaja Madah University. In 2025 I will deliver lectures at various other venues. Please contact me  if you are interested.

 

My next project will deal with the Nederlandse Handelmaatschappij (NHM), the hub in Dutch colonial capitalism. Despite its pivotal role the NHM has attracted relatively little attention in recent reflections on decolonisation and postcolonial history in the Netherlands. For this project I also intend to use part of my family history as platform for the larger story. My other grandfather, S.J. Baukema, has been an agent for the NHM from the 1920's to the 1960's in successively Shanghai, Penang, Batavia, Paramaribo, New York and eventually in Tangiers. As I recall him, he was not your typical banker. He was a gifted painter, had learned Chinese, was a rather solitary individual and was one of those slightly eccentric colonial specimens we know from Graham Greene and the like.

 

Images

I am not at all a  professial artist, but I love to paint and have for years participated in various courses and classes. Often the city of Amsterdam is a source of inspiration. I will paint your street or home on request.

 

Furniture and other objects

I was trained as cabinetmaker at the 'Third Vocational Training School' in Amsterdam and have worked during two years for a small cabinetmakers and restoration atelier. Since then cabinetmaking has never been a full time occupation, but it has always accompanied my other professional  interests. I have designed and produced in my own small workshop numerous pieces of furniture and carpentry for many clients, relatives, friends and of course in our own home, houseboat and campervan. I love to think over various solutions and make a design and product, which optimally fits requirements and possibilities.