Editing Philipp Franz von Siebold (section)

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Philipp Franz von Siebold arrived in the Netherlands in 1830, just at a time when political troubles erupted in [[Brussels]], leading soon to [[Belgian Revolution|Belgian independence]]. Hastily he salvaged his ethnographic collections in [[Antwerp]] and his herbarium specimens in Brussels and took them to [[Leiden]], helped by [[Johann Baptist Fischer]].<ref name="Binsbergen"/> He left behind his botanical collections of living plants that were sent to the [[University of Ghent]].<ref name="Binsbergen"/> The consequent expansion of this collection of rare and exotic plants led to the horticultural fame of [[Ghent]]. In gratitude the University of Ghent presented him in 1841 with specimens of every plant from his original collection.

Von Siebold settled in Leiden, taking with him the major part of his collection.<ref name="Binsbergen"/> The "Philipp Franz von Siebold collection", containing many [[type specimen]]s, was the earliest botanical collection from Japan. Even today, it still remains a subject of ongoing research, a testimony to the depth of work undertaken by von Siebold. It contained about 12,000 specimens, from which he could describe only about 2,300 species. The whole collection was purchased for a handsome amount by the Dutch government. Von Siebold was also granted a substantial annual allowance by the Dutch King [[William II of the Netherlands|William II]] and was appointed ''Advisor to the King for Japanese Affairs''. In 1842, the King even raised von Siebold to the nobility as an esquire.

The "Siebold collection" opened to the public in 1831. He founded a museum in his home in 1837. This small, private museum would eventually evolve into the [[National Museum of Ethnology (Netherlands)|National Museum of Ethnology]] in Leiden.<ref>{{cite book |author=Willem Otterspeer |year=1989 |title=Leiden Oriental Connections, 1850–1940 |volume=5 |series=Studies in the History of Leiden University |location=Leiden |publisher=[[Brill Publishers|E. J. Brill]] |isbn=978-90-04-09022-4 |page=389}}</ref> Von Siebold's successor in Japan, Heinrich Bürger, sent him three more shipments of herbarium specimens collected in Japan. This flora collection formed the basis of the Japanese collections of the [[National Herbarium of the Netherlands]]<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.nationaalherbarium.nl/| title = Nationaal Herbarium Nederland<!-- Bot generated title -->}}</ref> in Leiden, while the zoological specimens Von Siebold collected were kept by the [[Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie]] (''National Museum of Natural History'') in Leiden, which later became Naturalis. Both institutions merged into [[Naturalis Biodiversity Center]] in 2010, which now maintains the entire natural history collection that von Siebold brought back to Leiden.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.naturalis.nl/en/| title = Naturalis Biodiversity Center homepage (in English)}}</ref>

In 1845 von Siebold married Helene von Gagern (1820–1877), they had three sons and two daughters.