Tentoonstelling

Corona Chronicles

Exhibition

Corona Chronicles

About

This online exhibition looks at the current pandemic from a historical perspective, in collaboration with the Delft School of Microbiology Archives at the Delft Science Centre.

Illustration of a coronavirus

A Mysterious Infection

Tobacco Mosaic Virus (TMV), which causes Tobacco Mosaic Disease, was the first virus to be recognized as an infectious biological agent smaller than even bacteria. This part of the exhibition is about how the Tobacco Mosaic disease led to important research on viruses, and the key players in this story.

Delft School of Microbiology, Beijerinck Collection

Mayer, Ivanovski and Beijerinck

Martinus W. Beijerinck is often called the Father of Virology because of his important contribution to the discovery of the TMV. After he published his work, he recognized that his work was built on the work of two other scientists, namely Adolf Mayer and Dmitry Ivanovski.

Chamberland filters

Contagium Vivum Fluidum

After becoming Professor of Microbiology at the Delft Polytechnic (now Delft University of Technology) in 1897, Beijerinck repeated his previous experiment.

Father of Virology

Martinus Beijerinck is often called the Father of Virology, as he realised the infectious agent was biological rather than chemical, and self-replicating, but too small to be bacterial.

Beijerinck’s laboratory journal

An electron micrograph of TMV

Beijerinck's laboratories

About Beijerinck: From Botany to Microbiology

Beijerinck began his scientific life as a teacher of botany at an agricultural school in Wageningen.

Science Centre Delft

Take a tour of a reconstruction of Beijerinck's office

The foundation stones for what later became known as microbiology and applied botany, and only much later biotechnology, were laid in a room looking just like this one. The furniture was made for Beijerinck in the late 19th-century and later used by Albert Jan Kluyver. The room also holds equipment from Gerrit van Iterson. The office of a professor teaching at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries would have served many different purposes. Usually it held not only a reference library, teaching and writing equipment, but it also sometimes functioned as a meeting room and simple lab. It was perfectly normal for scientists to carry out experiments in their offices. For that reason, in addition to the books and papers, you can see microscopes, weighing scales and chemicals in some of the cupboards. In the beginning of Beijerincks tenure, there was no electricity in the buildings and the professors used gas light. Therefore much of the equipment has been adjusted to work in low light circumstances. Enjoy your visit!

A Mysterious Infection