In 1851, the Association of the Royal Yacht Club took possession of the elegant mansion on Rotterdam’s Willemskade. Members of the association, which was chaired by the Queen’s consort Prince Hendrik, donated maritime objects, ships’ models and ethnographic pieces, and in 1873 this led to the foundation of the Prince Hendrik Maritime Museum. After the prince’s death, the building became the property of the municipality. In 1883 the council decided to establish an ethnographic museum, as Haarlem and Leiden (Museum Volkenkunde) had done previously. Major drivers were Dutch trade relations abroad, the rise of colonialism and increased missionary activity as well as the newly emerging science of cultural anthropology. The Museum for Geography and Cultural Anthropology – today’s Wereldmuseum – opened its doors on 1 May, 1885