These bronze reliefs are a copy of the reliefs on the memorial for Jan Pieter Minckelers (1748-1824), erected in Maastricht in 1904 by sculptor Bart van Hove (1850-1914). Minckelers was a lecturer at the University of Leuven and in 1783, he succeeded in producing the very first lighting gas. The reliefs show how Minckelers, supported by the Duke of Arenberg, released the very first gas balloon in the Low Countries on the lawn in front of Arenberg Castle on 20 November 1783, and how already in the following year his own laboratory was illuminated with the technology. The artist donated the reliefs to the university at the inauguration of the statue in Maastricht.
Serradella, alfalfa and sand vetches are just a few examples of forage crops that have left their mark in the archives of Amaat Dumon, professor of agricultural sciences. As head of the Breeding Station of the Belgian Farmers' Union, of the university Laboratory for Applied Genetics and of the Flemish department of the General Inspection Service for Seeds and Seeds, Dumon was an expert in the extraction, propagation and breeding of seeds. His remarkable didactic collection includes dozens of test tubes, sachets and aspirin tubes filled with colorful seeds.
