Landscape, nature and national identity.:An introductory note

It was one hundred years ago, in 1905, that a group of schoolteachers, biologists, merchants and members of the nobility founded the Dutch Society for the Preservation of Natural Monuments (Vereeniging tot behoud van Natuurmonumenten), heralding the start of the Dutch movement for nature conservation. This inspired the KNHG to organize a conference on the history of nature conservation in the Low Countries during the course of the nineteenth and twentieth century. The way in which people perceived naturein the nineteenth century was strongly influenced by their sense of history; a point which is reflected in the introduction to this special issue of the BMGN/ LCHR. During this period, nature was seen as the backdrop to, and physical manifestation of, the history of the Dutch nation and landscape therefore became an expression of national identity. This is illustrated in the discussions on the works of writers such as David Jacob van Lennep, Jacobus Craandijk and Frederik van Eeden, Sr