Jac P Thijsse

Someone who gave Texel, and the uniqueness of its nature in particular, fame was Dr. Jac. P. Thijsse from Amsterdam. As a young teacher, Thijsse came to Texel in 1890 to teach. Though Thijsse was only on the island for 2.5 years, Thijsse was deeply impressed by the enormous amount of plants and birds he found there.

Publications

After his period on Texel, Thijsse returned to the island very regularly and published many works. Thijsse was co-author of the Illustrated Flora of the Netherlands, among other things. In addition, Thijsse was founder of the Dutch Association for Preservation of Nature and the Dutch Association for the Protection of Birds. On Texel itself, the Thijsse name is linked mainly to the Verkade album about Texel, which was published in 1927. However, Thijsse also wrote the other volumes in the Verkade series.

Vision on nature

Thijsse had a very distinctive and progressive vision on nature for his time. By now, many of his ideas have been generally accepted. In the days when frantic attempts were made at closing off the Slufter from the sea, Thijsse wrote: 'Yet I think it would be nicer to keep this Slufter open, with all the accompanying opportunities'.