Talking about something “typically Dutch”… the tulip.
And yet, it isn’t Dutch at all.
Tulips (Tulipa) originated in Central Asia and were cultivated extensively in the Ottoman Empire before arriving in the Netherlands in the 16th century. What followed became one of the most remarkable chapters in economic history: Tulip Mania. At its peak in the 1630s, individual bulbs were traded for the price of a house. Speculation drove values higher and higher—until the market collapsed almost overnight, marking what is often considered the first recorded economic bubble.
And still, the story didn’t end there.
The Netherlands refined, cultivated, and exported the tulip on a massive scale, becoming the world’s largest producer. In later years, even the Vatican received Dutch tulips as a gesture of gratitude and diplomacy—a symbol of beauty, grown from a complicated past.
This image captures a ‘Negrita’ or ‘Purple Prince’ tulip, standing among many others. Shot with a Canon 5D Mark IV and Canon 100–400mm, the telephoto allowed for selective focus—isolating form, color, and structure within the layered field of blooms.
A single flower, surrounded by history. Not just botanical, but economic, cultural, and human.
What we often see as simple beauty is rarely simple at all.
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Nori 🇳🇴
Maikel de Bakker
ThreeDollarBill
Colin Purrington
