1. Introduction -- 2. Early collections of classical art in the Netherlands: the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries -- 3. C.J.C. Reuvens and the archaeological cabinet in Leiden, 1818 -- 4. Collections and conflicts -- 5. The Greek collections of B.E.A. Rottiers -- 6. Jean Emile Humbert: the quest for Carthage -- 7. Station Livorno: the Etruscan and Egyptian collections -- 8. Forum Hadriani: digging behind the dunes -- 9. The ideal museum: dreams and reality -- 10. End of the pioneer years, 1835-40 -- App. 1. Life of C.J.C. Reuvens -- App. 2. The discorso preliminare of Raffaele Gargiulo: classifying Greek vases -- App. 3. Earliest museum publications, 1818-40 -- App. 4. Le Voyageur: a wanderer's song
