Photo: Vysotsky · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Nationaal Ambulance- en Eerste Hulpmuseum

Museum on the history of ambulances and first aid in Leiden; according to its website currently closed until further notice.

Temporarily closed

Website Directions

Temporarily closed. The official website describes the museum as closed “until further notice” (a notice dating from the Covid period); no reopening has been announced. Group visits by arrangement were possible in the past.

About the museum

The museum was founded on 15 December 1988 as a continuation of the private collection of the Groningen physician Carel Volckmann. On his retirement as a public health officer, friends gave him a foundation; the founders included the Oranje Kruis and the ambulance services in Groningen. The first exhibition was created in Winschoten in a car dealership that also ran a patient transport service and imported ambulances from the USA.

After 2001 came years of wandering: the collection and the vehicles went to depots in Helenaveen and Wijk bij Duurstede, and in 2004 the museum opened in Apeldoorn. Plans for a joint national safety museum failed, and in 2010 the board decided to dissolve the foundation.

The ambulance service RAV Hollands Midden saved the museum: in its new headquarters on the Vondellaan in Leiden, a former Mercedes dealership, it provided the exhibition space in the former showroom and a depot. On 11 March 2013 the museum reopened there. On display are historic ambulances, medical supplies and uniforms. Since the Covid period, the official website has carried a notice that the museum is closed until further notice.