#i've linked his wiki page but unfortunately it's only available in dutch and german so give deepl a spin i guess

[abrahamvanhelsings]

it's been a good few days since we made our (re)acquaintance with our good professor dr. van helsing, which means im going to do what i promised to do literal months ago and present my historical faceclaim: dutch reformed church minister (dominee) cornelis eliza van koetsveld (1807-1893):

one of the most well-known ministers of his era, he started out as a simple village preacher and ended up as court minister - he even baptised queen wilhelmina of the netherlands (1880-1962). he was also, like many dutch reformed ministers in the 19th century, a fairly popular author. it was relatively common for dutch ministers to write fictionalised accounts of their experiences, especially in the countryside, about the people and their habits, the day-to-day occurences, their own efforts to teach and guide their flock correctly and the difficulties they encountered. such accounts usually included some kind of social commentary (van koetsveld's later work was inspired by dickens) and moral lessons for the readers as well. van koetsveld's most popular book can be found here, though it is of course in dutch.

so why van koetsveld? going off his looks alone, when i saw his picture for the first time, i was struck by how in almost every single one of his portraits, he looks kind and caring and yet - there is something mischievous about him, like he's in on some joke or a little piece of knowledge that you, the onlooker, have not yet been made aware of. he looks like a knowledgeable elderly man who also knows how to have little fun - which, to me? is van helsing to a t. and it's not just in his face: his written work exudes the authoritativeness of the 19th century preacher but is full of witty comments and sharp wisecracks that still make me chuckle when i read them.

there is also something else that endears him to me, and that makes me think he's a good fit for van helsing: van koetsveld founded the first dutch school for special education of what we now know to be neurodivergent children, the 'hague idiot school' (1855-1920). the name of his institute doesn't translate particularly well to modern times, but it is important to view this in context: the children who attended this school were generally thought to be feeble-minded and therefore incapable of development, but van koetsveld disagreed with that sentiment. now i don't think van koetsveld would've believed vampires to be anything else but a baseless countryside myth, but his views on neurodivergent children show a certain open-mindedness, to think differently from other people, that is a core trait of van helsing too. (somewhat in that vein, for anyone interested, when the time comes, ill make a post on his conduct towards renfield)

tl;dr, when looking at his pictures i can easily imagine him doing any of the things we see van helsing do in the books: teasing seward, maintaining his gentle but firm bedside manner around his patients, getting up to the various nighttime shenanigans from the next few weeks, and van koetsveld's real-life temperament, as far as can be established, seems to collide quite well with the character of van helsing.

#it doesn't look like cornelis was a ginger but well you can't have everything #i've linked his wiki page but unfortunately it's only available in dutch and german so give deepl a spin i guess #most of the information on that page i just ripped off and (re)wrote here tho #anyway! i wish i could've met this man irl i think i would have liked him #do i agree with everything he says. no ofc not he was a 19th c. minister. but he is definitely one of my obscure historical special guys #dracula #dracula daily #also trying to find the right english equivalent for terms in the dutch reformed church is terrible #half the time the english term is used in the anglican church but the same word directly translated to dutch is a catholic term #so i tried to avoid them here as much of them as possible