Overview

New display cases for pictures in Anne Frank’s room

Sept. 15, 2021 — This week, the glass display cases in Anne Frank’s bedroom in the Secret Annex will be replaced. The new display cases will protect the original pictures that Anne Frank stuck on the wallpaper from climatic variations and humidity and make it easier to check them regularly and restore them when necessary.

Then, on Friday, the day after Yom Kippur, the pictures in Anne’s room will be on view again.

Meyvaert has specially developed the glass cases (like the display cases in the diary room that protect Anne’s original manuscripts) and will install them in the Secret Annex with Jurriëns and Saan. A crane will be set up on Westermarkt to hoist out the old cases and hoist in the new ones. Restorer Nico Lingbeek will keep an eye on the original picture walls during the operation.

Management and preservation of originals

Teresien da Silva, Head of Collections at the Anne Frank House: ‘Visitors to the Anne Frank House experience Anne Frank’s life story through quotations, photographs, film clips, and original objects, such as the bookcase, the pictures, and her diaries. We make every effort to properly protect these originals from outside influences, such as temperature variations, humidity, dust, and vibration. The new display cases in Anne’s bedroom protect the pictures from these outside influences and have moreover been fitted with hinges. These hinges make the display cases easier to open so that we can have the condition of the pictures checked regularly and restored when necessary.’

Temporary exhibition about Anne’s pictures

Anne had started collecting postcards and pictures of movie stars even before the family went into hiding. She brought her collection with her from the house on Merwedeplein to the Secret Annex. Anne wrote in her diary:

‘Thanks to Father, who had brought my whole collection of picture postcards and movie stars here beforehand, I have been able to treat the walls with a pot of glue and a brush and so turn the entire room into one big picture.’
Anne Frank, 11 July 1942

The temporary exhibition ‘A Room Full of Dreams’ is currently on view at the Anne Frank House. The focus of this exhibition is on the pictures and postcards that Anne Frank stuck on the walls of her little room.