Calendars
Insurers have a long-standing tradition of gifting calendars to business partners, a practice that dates back to the 19th century. Calendars were a functional and inexpensive advertising tool, they paid for themselves—after all, a 'calendar hangs on the wall and is seen daily by everyone'.
De Nederlanden van 1845, with many foreign agencies, began publishing annual calendars in the late 19th century. In 1899, almost 6,000 pieces were sent all over the world. These calendars were printed in English, Spanish and South African, in addition to Dutch. The Amsterdamsche Maatschappij van Levensverzekeringen, which had many activities in the Dutch East Indies with a primarily Chinese clientele, created specialised Chinese-language calendars.
The advertising departments worked year-round on these calendars, deciding on the subject, images and formats. While some companies, like the Noord Braband Life Insurance reused the same calendar design for almost ten years, others innovated each year. Once printed, the calendars were meticulously processed by the distribution department and sent from head offices to agents and partners—a process documented in preserved photographs.
There are more than 150 calendars in the Historical Collection of Nationale-Nederlanden, ranging from the earliest, dated 1895, to the most recent in 2010. The oldest calendars often only displayed the name, with the logo or the headquarters, later themes like art and nature became popular. Many calendars were illustrated by well-known artists of the time including Erna van Osselen, Rie Cramer, Otto Dicke and Ed van der Elsken.
