The historical relationship between the TU Delft and Bandung Institute of Technology

The TU Delft Library explores the long relationship between Delft and Indonesia, on the occasion of the 2020 centenary of Indonesia’s oldest technical college: Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB). We join this celebrations with an exhibition, lecture and several publications that are all available online.

Exhibition Bandung ath the TU Delft Library
You can visit the (physical) exhibition in the main hall of the TU Delft Library until the end of May 2021. For photos of this physical exhibition, click here. The current corona measures apply when visiting the TU Delft Library.

Online exhibition
This exhibition explores the legacy of Dutch engineering in the field of irrigation in the Dutch East Indies, and the impact these systems still have on Indonesia today. View the online exhibition here.

Essay by Abel Streefland
This essay by Abel Streefland offers deeper insight into the founding of ITB and the historical relationship between Delft University of Technology and its Indonesian counterpart. It breaks down several myths concerning the establishment of the school in Bandung and also provides an overview of the main actors involved.

Lecture with Abel Streefland
Following the essay by Abel Streefland, a lecture with Abel about TU Delft and the colonial history of the Dutch East Indies has been recorded. The recordings of this can be found online on the Studium Generale website.

Lies Odenthal; the female student from the first class of civil engineering
"That one woman was my grandmother," wrote a reader in response to the article on 100 years of the Bandung Institute of Technology (Delft Outlook, July). But who exactly was the woman from the first class of civil engineering students in the former Dutch East Indies? Granddaughter Annette Lievaart tells the story of her grandmother Lies Odenthal.

University magazine Delta
The online university magazine Delta also wrote an article about the relationship between Delft and Bandung.

This exhibition is an initiative of the Academic Heritage team of the TU Delft Library.
Source header photo: Leiden University Libraries, Digital Collections