400 Year Anniversary
In 1823 Haarlem celebrated the 400th anniversary of Coster's invention with a monument in the Haarlemmerhout. The monument is decorated with Latin inscriptions and a memorial text in Dutch, with symbolic "A" decorations at the top. The celebration was organized by Abraham de Vries, a Coster fan who became Haarlem's first librarian in 1821 and who received a commission from the city fathers to acquire Costeriana, or material relating to Coster's claim to fame. De Vries was supported by the professor and city council member David Jacob van Lennep, who believed the legend and sponsored De Vries by obtaining funds from the city council for the monument. In the period after the Flanders Campaign which led to the French occupation of the Netherlands from 1794-1815, Haarlem's economy was severely depressed and the city council sought a local hero. In 1817, Van Lennep (who was in the city council at the time) had also placed the monument De Naald (Heemstede) at his own home in nearby Heemstede.
The Germans were insulted by the anniversary celebration and held a similar anniversary celebration the next year.
Read more about this topic: Laurens Janszoon Coster
Famous quotes containing the words year and/or anniversary:
“By the year 2020, the year of perfect vision, the old will outnumber the young.”
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“The second day of July 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more”
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