Marinus van Hattum (1946) has obtained his doctorate in 1996 with a dissertation entitled Jan Fredrik Helmers (1767-1813). Leven en werk van een Amsterdamse wereldburger. As of 1982 Van Hattum is a member of the Board of the society ‘Het Bilderdijk-Museum’. His function is to enhance the study on the life and works of Bilderdijk and his contemporaries.