PCF Talk #65 – Agenda Monthly Meeting – Hybrid
This is a hybrid event, please join in person, or via the zoom link below!
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Who We Talk About When We Talk About the Maritime
Representation and the Lives Behind the Port
09:00 - 09:15
Welcome and Opening by the thematic group “Human-Centred Port-City Transitions”
Introduction to the Maritime Museum by Annette de Wit, Senior Curator
Exhibition Guided Tour: Maritime Women
(in person only)
09:15 - 10:15
In October 2025 the new exhibition on maritime women opened at the Maritime Museum. An exhibition about women working in the maritime sector, in The Netherlands as well as in other countries around the world. The exhibition shows that they have been there for centuries, working in shipbuilding, inland shipping, in science, in harbours as well as on board—despite the image that prevails in (Dutch) society that the maritime world is a “male world”. But women working in the maritime industry have hardly been researched, so their work and presence go unnoticed. Up until now! The exhibition shows the stories of over 50 women, working from the 16th century until the present day, as ship- and shipyard owners, scientists, sailors or as pirates.
Top: Kenau Hasselaer, ship owner and shipyard owner in the 16th century.
Bottom left: Tieneke Biemold, one of the first naval officers in the Netherlands.
Bottom right: Mary Soulier, stewardess and child carer in the 1960s at the ships of Holland-America Line.
Image courtesy: Maritime Museum
About the Speaker
Irene Jacobs is senior curator at the Maritime Museum, responsible for the art and applied art collections, as well as the photographical objects and printed matters. She got a scholarship from NWO to do research into maritime women, present in the collection of the Maritime Museum. She found nearly 500 women there, of which she researched around 30. It was the basis for the exhibition.
10:15 - 10:25
Break
Man in the Port
Research Presentation by Nikki Sikkema and Rayke van Lent
10:25 - 11:05
The first container ship entered the port of Rotterdam in 1968, marking the start of considerable changes to the labor process over the next decades. Dock work became more solitary and less physical. The rise of the shipping container also reduced the demand for work in the breakbulk sector, causing mass deployment in stevedoring companies. The impact of these changes have been investigated by historians on a technological, logistical, and economic level, but the impact on the everyday lives of dockworkers and their families has been neglected in previous research.
Dockworkers have historically been theorized to produce and sustain a community based on the tough and dangerous characteristics of their work. This sense of community encouraged investing in relationships outside of work and developed (common) leisure interests. Community had an all-encompassing nature and involved both the occupational as well as domestic sphere. This means these communities bridged the gap between work and home, involving dockworkers themselves but also their families.
The nature of their occupation was therefore central to the identity of dockworkers. It altered their idea of themselves, their social relations, and their daily lives both in and outside of the workplace. But little is known about how changes to the work affected dockworker communities, and whether this theorized community even continued to exist. Therefore, this project addresses the question: How did the port community in Rotterdam take shape, and why and how did this community either persist or transform in response to change in the port from the 1960s onwards?
This presentation will introduce the project, its comparative approach, methodology and theoretical framework. The presentation will also give insight into a few preliminary observations, based on the first few oral history interviews conducted. The presentation will be followed up by a Q&A, during which feedback and suggestions are very welcomed.
About the Speakers
Nikki Sikkema and Rayke van Lent are PhD candidates for the Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication. Both of them work on the project Man in the Port (supervised by Prof Dr Paul van de Laar, Dr Annette de Wit and Dr Tina van der Vlies).
11:05 - 11:15
Break
Joint Discussion with the Speakers:
Representation of People and Communities in Maritime Culture
11:15 - 11:45
PCF lighthouse projects and new opportunities
11:45 - 12:00