Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde.

Now known as Wereldmuseum Leiden, this institution founded in 1837 is one of the world’s oldest ethnographic museums. Housed in a monumental former academic hospital just outside the city center, it eschews traditional, dry geographical surveys in favor of a thematic approach. Displays are organized around universal human experiences—such as mourning, celebrating, praying, and fighting—to connect artifacts from Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Oceania. The vast collection of over 450,000 objects, including an exceptional trove of Japanese artifacts, is presented alongside a critical look at the museum's own colonial-era collecting history. It is a thoughtful, human-centric space that highlights what connects global cultures rather than what divides them.