Meer dan een monument
This thesis is a biography of the Groningen-based Scholten family, covering the period 1820-1960 and three generations of Scholtens. The main question of this thesis is how the different members of the Scholten family shaped their identity, and following from that, if there was such thing as a collective family identity.
The main question is supported by several sub-questions, exploring the role of women within the family company, the (a)symmetry in the different forms of capital owned by the family members, dynastic urge and philanthropy. The concept of (autobiographical) performance is one of the main units of analysis in this thesis. Performances are found in egodocuments, artifacts, visual sources, actions and finally the family archive as a whole. This family archive obscures the role of women in the family, through the way its inventory has been written as well as through what has been included therein. The answer to the main question of this thesis is that the Scholtens tried to shape their identity as members of the new elite. In doing so, they created a family narrative in which philanthropy played a big part, as well as the idea that they came from a poor background. This thesis has expanded the historiography on the Scholtens by taking a cultural rather than an economic approach, and by incorporating the family as a whole.