Groningen University Museum

The Groningen University Museum is dedicated to preserving the stories behind the research conducted at the four-century-old institution. It is home to a diverse array of natural, scientific, and cultural artifacts, from historical medical devices (including silver blood-letting blades and the earliest x-ray tubes) to a lump of iron once thought to be a holy relic that had fallen from the sky over Siberia (now identified as a meteorite) to the world’s first electric vehicle, built in 1835.

The museum gives special attention to the university’s collection of bones and organs, including several tattoos preserved in jars. There is also a room honoring Aletta Jacobs, the first woman to graduate from college in the Netherlands, in the 1870s. Jacobs went on to become a doctor and women’s rights advocate.