Museum from Home Activity: Tulip Mania

Tulip Mania

When people think of tulips today, many picture the beautiful fields of different colored tulips scattered across the Dutch countryside. However, the story of the tulip in Dutch history is not all so beautiful, as the flower was once the centerpiece of a drastic market fallout dubbed “TulipoMania”.

While the tulip began with humble origins nestled in the valleys of the Tien Shen Mountains in Central Asia, their reputation steadily grew due to its vibrant colors and complex “broken” patterns. By the 11th century the flowers had found their way into the gardens of nobles across Persia and many Islamic city states, and continued spreading through the Middle East and into the Balkans of Eastern Europe thanks to the rising Ottoman Empire a few centuries later.

The flowers quickly passed on throughout Europe, and the first reference of the tulip in Dutch history was recorded in the late 16th century, by an esteemed Dutch botanist, Carolus Clusius. The tulip’s arrival in the Netherlands coincided with the country’s rise into a golden era of newfound independence, wealth, and attention as an international hub of trade.

In just a few decades Dutch interest in tulips had fully blossomed, and with the wealth of the nation drastically increasing, the tulip became a symbol of prosperity, power and high society. The interest in the flower quickly soared out of control in the public markets and soon some speculators were selling bulb contracts for nearly 5,000 florins, roughly equivalent to around $100,000 U.S. dollars today.

The market on tulip bulbs during this era, infamously dubbed “Tulipomania”, was spurred by the same qualities of the flower that first drove its attention: the vibrant and varying colors of the flowers and the color patterns on different strains of bulbs. This mania was short lived, as the market crashed just a few weeks after hitting this peak. However, it helped cement the place of the tulip in Netherlands’ history. Today the flowers coat numerous country sides across the nation, and in the height of the spring bloom many cities hold massive tulip festivals which draw in visitors from across the world.