Education
There's much to learn
A visit to the Museum of Bags and Purses is suitable for all ages and is an inspiring and unique museum experience.
The Museum of Bags and Purses tells the history of the western handbag from the late Middle Ages right up to the present. It is the only bag museum in Europe with such an extensive and specialized collection.
The museum owns a collection of 4,000 bags, pouches, cases, purses and accessories and this makes it the biggest bag museum in the world. The collection demonstrates that the bag has a whole range of functions, forms, materials and adornments. But each bag also has its own story to tell: about social developments, styles in the applied arts, and the fashions through the ages.
The Museum of Bags and Purses is situated in a splendid canal house dating from 1664, originally built as the residence for the mayor of Amsterdam at the time. The museum has two period rooms with painted ceilings and chimney paintings dating from the 17th and 18th centuries.
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School programmes
History of the bag
