KLV Wageningen Alumni Network - The story of the showcase in the Impulse building

In the KLV showcase in the Impulse building on the Wageningen Campus you see the book 'Wageningers' and two gavels. This is the story behind it:

After 134 years of rich history, the alumni association KLV was dissolved on 1 October 2020. In honor of this, the book ‘Wageningers: de betekenis van 134 jaar Koninklijke Landbouwkundige Vereniging’ [translation: ‘Wageningers: the meaning of 134 years Royal Agricultural Society’] was written, in which an important part of the history of Wageningen alumni is portrayed.

KLV has not always been one association. After the first period from 1886 to 1908, in which it was called the Association of Former Students [Vereeniging van Oud Leerlingen], the association split into two associations: the Royal Society for Agricultural Sciences [(Koninklijk) Genootschap voor Landbouwwetenschap] (in short: KGvL) and the Dutch Institute for Agricultural Engineers [Nederlands Instituut van Landbouwkundig Ingenieurs] (in short: NILI).

These associations existed side by side for many years, although they often collaborated. The two gavels were gifted to each other by the two associations, one in honor of the 40-year anniversary of the NILI and one in honor of the 70-year anniversary of the KGvL. It was not until 1995 that they merged back into one association (KLV), although the two gavels remained. During the farewell ceremony for KLV on 3 October 2020, both gavels were gifted to Wageningen University & Research as a symbol for the transfer of the stewardship of alumni relations.