Women’s Business / Businesswomen

Museum Plantin-Moretus

Vrijdagmarkt 22-23, Antwerp

23/09/2025 – 11/01/2026

Museum Plantin-Moretus

For years, I’ve been privileged to lead tours in the Plantin-Moretus Museum. There’s always something new to experience. Hundreds of exhibitions and tours can be organized. This time it’s interesting again. It’s not really an exhibition, in separate rooms, but an extra layer of experience.

A unique feature of Women’s Business/Businesswomen are the original archive documents. Each theme includes a separate archive document. Because the project runs for four months, the documents are rotated or replaced at two months to minimize damage.

9 generations

The printing house was founded by Christoffel Plantijn and Jeanne Rivière. Nine generations and 300 years later, the buildings and contents were sold to the city of Antwerp. At the end of the 19th century, it became a museum. Around 100 years later, in 2002, the company archives were included on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The company archives, dating from 1555 to 1876, have been preserved almost completely intact. A goldmine for historians and interested people. A year ago, it was decided to search through the archives to look for the women who lived and worked there. The results can now be found in seven rooms of the museum.

11 women

Seven themes and 11 women have been chosen from the nine generations. Only seven themes because the last two generations weren’t included. Not seven, but 11 women because the Plantin sisters are grouped together in one place. Five sisters, daughters of Jeanne Rivière, each with a unique character and story. We obtained most of the details of these sisters from a letter from Christophe Plantijn describing his daughters. This letter isn’t in the gallery, but there is a letter from a French lace merchant to Jeanne Rivière, asking her daughters to handle the lace orders. Were they allowed to refuse? We don’t know. The description in this gallery sums it up well: were these daughters presented with golden opportunities, or was it a golden cage?

7 silhouettes of REAntwerp

REantwerp was founded by Tim Van Steenbergen and Ruth Goossens. It’s a sustainable and socially driven fashion brand based in Antwerp. Seven silhouettes were created specifically for the women of the museum. The team at REantwerp consists of newcomers and refugees with a background in textiles. They work exclusively with leftover fabrics from companies such as Dries Van Noten, Raf Simons, and Scabal. Discover the origins of the fabrics and components of each silhouette. Will you also look at the duality of each silhouette? Each garment is black on the left side.

11 extras

As you wander through the museum, past its seven themes, you’ll discover blue plaques in various rooms and the courtyard that tell additional stories. They talk about the washerwomen, art in the maids’ rooms, or the love between domestic servants. Hopefully, these plaques and the women’s stories will always remain available. They give history a human face.

Guided Tours

You’ll also see me there as a guide or to revisit the archival documents and silhouettes. If you’d like a guided tour with me, please include my name as your guide when booking via the museum.