Among this collection of images illustrating Kuyper’s life and work there are numerous facsimile letters, two telegrams to his wife (sent as Kuyper was hurriedly making his way home from abroad after the death of their youngest son, Willy [†July 27, 1892]), and the statement of 1897.07. The work also includes a large number of images of Kuyper’s publications and of fragments from his literary estate.

The earliest item by Kuyper is a facsimile of a declaration from 1848 (p. 12). Composed in his childish handwriting, the note describes his conversion and his decision “to flee from evil and strive for good” (see also 2001.02 and, in English translation, 1998.05). The first letter to his fiancée, Johanna Schaay, is printed in facsimile on page 34. The text of the letter (dated December 28, 1919) in which Kuyper clasps the hand extended by De Savornin Lohman (see 1938.02, p. 332) is reprinted on page 334.

The picture biography was intended to serve as an introduction to the eponymous exhibition held at the Vrije Universiteit on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of Kuyper’s birth. A new and reworked edition of the picture biography was published in 2008 (see 2008.02) and presented on November 5, 2008, on the occasion of the unveiling of Kuyper’s statue in his native city of Maassluis.