The municipal Damien Museum, together with its partners including KADOC-KU Leuven, manages and opens up the Damien Collection to a wide national and international audience in a sustainable and high-quality manner. In 2023, the museum (municipality of Tremelo) received this collection on long-term loan from the non-profit organisation Vereniging der Paters der Heilige Harten, owner of the collection.
Origins
The origins of this Damien Collection date back to Damien's death in Molokai on the 15th of April 1889. The then Leuven superior of the Sacred Heart Fathers, Maurits Raepsaet, was quick to realise the recruiting potential of the figure of Father Damien. Raepsaet collected as many archives (Damien's letters), objects, documentation and stories from and about Damien as he could, with the aim of raising awareness of the figure of Damien and inspiring people. In the course of the 20th century, fathers and lay people continued this work until today.
Unique and irreplaceable
The Damien Collection is unique and irreplaceable. Nowhere else has such an extensive collection of objects by and about Father Damien been brought together. Internationally, it is the largest core collection of archival items directly related to Damien (including Damien's letters) and other objects including utensils, liturgical objects and books. The Damien and Marianne Educational Center and the Archive of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts in Hawaii, USA, equally possess an important collection of authentic Damien archival objects. Smaller noteworthy collections of authentic Damien artefacts are also held elsewhere, such as in, for example, the Archives of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts in Rome (archival objects), the Hawaii State Archives (archival objects), Wisconsin Historical Society (utensils), Saint Marianne Cope Museum and Archives (archival objects), Archives Notre Dame University Indiana (archival objects), Moloka'i Museum (archival objects) in the United States.
Sub-collections
The Damien Collection can be divided into three sub-collections:
Damien Archive Collection
Within the Archive Collection, Damien's letters and other original pieces attract particular attention. Damien's correspondence (letters to and from Damien), personal documents, accounting records and authentic photographs, together with the drawings, which Edward Clifford made of Damien and the leper settlement of Molokai in 1888, form the core of the Archive Collection. Damien's writings were an important source for the beatification and canonisation process and are still being examined today by researchers and biographers worldwide. This authentic core has been on the Flemish Masterpiece List since 2013.
A second section of archival material is directly related to the Causa, the beatification and canonisation process. It includes copies of historical documents, correspondence, testimonies, preparatory notes for pleadings, etc. The Vie et Documents source collection also belongs to this second section. Father Odilo Van Gestel brought together transcriptions of letters and other documents by and about Damien in the 1930s with a view to the trial in this extensive and unpublished compilation, a unique goldmine for Damien researchers.
Under the third section 'Damien Inspires' we keep archival material (files, correspondence, minutes, posters, etc), documentation (press cuttings, lectures, etc), visual material (photo collections, postcards, prayer cards, etc) and audiovisual material on a variety of media (vinyl record, slide, cassette video, CD, DVD), around the various moments when Damien was in the spotlight, e.g. the transfer of Damien's body (1936), the 100th anniversary of his death (1989), the beatification (1994-1995), the election of 'The Greatest Belgian' (2005) and the canonisation (2009). This third section also includes archives, documentation, visual and audiovisual material on Damien in the arts: visual arts, literature, film, theatre, etc.
A special part of the archive collection is the (partial) archive of Jozef Dutton, a close associate of Damien in his last years on Molokai (1886-1889).
The organisational archive and documentation collection of the Damien Documentation and Information Centre and the Damien Today Project (1990-2023) are also part of the Archive Collection, as are the ‘Damien Collections’ of several leading Fathers and other important protagonists in the broad social ‘Damien Movement’, which propagates Damien's inspiration and values in various ways (e.g. the ‘Damien Collections’ of Paul Macken, René Obbels, ...).
Damien museum collection
Authentic Damien objects form the core of the museum collection. Among those objects are Damien's altar, monstrance, carpentry tools, liturgical objects and clothing and numerous personal objects such as pipes, walking sticks and photos.
This core of the museum collection was supplemented at various times by various collections of objects: ethnographic objects, pagan objects and works of art.
In 1936, on his visit to the Hawaiian Islands, Father Vanhoutte received a collection of Hawaiian ethnographic objects for the Damien Museum from the Bishop Museum in Honolulu. The Bishop Museum donation includes more than 50 objects exemplifying Hawaiian material culture. At the same time, a number of valuable Polynesian cultural objects from the historical ethnographic collection, kept in the Generalate of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts, were also transferred to the Damien Museum. In addition, several Fathers also brought a lot of ethnographic material with them when they came to Flanders on leave. These additions were almost automatically added to the museum collection.
When the Damien Museum was established and opened in 1952, a collection of Flemish local history objects was also created. For the reconstruction of the interior of the house where Damien was born, only a handful of authentic objects belonging to the De Veuster family remained. Around a hundred objects from the second half of the 19th century were added, which are still part of this local history collection.
Art was also considered an important medium to permanently promote the figure of Damien. The collection contains numerous examples of devotional, folk and amateur art with Damien as its subject. Special efforts were made the Damien Documentation and Information Centre in Leuven from 1990 to 2023 to collect as many original artworks and reproductions of leading artworks as possible. Much earlier, several important works of art found their way into the museum collection, in particular the monumental tapestry designed by Marcel Lafôret and woven by Chaudoir (1937) and the Damien portraits by Felix Deboeck (1936-1957).
Damien's library collection
Around the core of the library collection, formed by Damien's personal library sent from Molokai, collections of all kinds of Damien publications grew in the various monastery libraries of the Sacred Heart Fathers in Belgium. From the beginning, the collection designers nurtured the almost unrealistic ambition to collect all publications on Father Damien in every possible language. These scattered ‘Damien collections’ were brought together in the Damien Documentation and Information Centre in Leuven in the early 1990s. The ambition was broadened and continued in the 1990s. Meanwhile, the library collection includes publications on Damien and related topics: Congregation of the Sacred Hearts, the Catholic mission and Protestant mission in Hawaii, the history and culture of Hawaii, leprosy in the Hawaiian Islands and worldwide, etc.
Digital inventory and catalogue
The digital inventory of the Archives collection is accessible to everyone and permanently accessible via ScopeArchiv/LIAS
The digital inventory of the Museum Collection (including the Art Collection) is accessible to everyone and permanently consultable via Erfgoedplus.be
The digital catalogue of the Library Collection is accessible to all and permanently consultable via LIMO.
Consultation of collections by appointment
Researchers can also consult the sub-collections - depending on the vulnerability of the item or collection as a whole - by appointment. Any request for consultation should be submitted in good time (at least 2 weeks in advance) and with a motivation via the contact form.
