For the outside world, mills are forever associated with the Netherlands. When foreigners think of the Netherlands, they immediately think of mills. The Dutch Mill Association is responsible for protecting this national symbol. At the association’s request, A.J. de Koning, a former technical advisor, ex-managing director and honorary member of the association, photographed Dutch mills from the early 1960s through to the mid-1990s, while they were being restored and on the occasion of festivities and official visits.

Thanks to De Koning’s aesthetic sense and his meticulous working methods, he always succeeded in making two or three particularly sharp and characteristic photographs of every mill he visited. These photographs were processed into slides, the digitized collection of which is now on view on the site of the Memory of the Netherlands. This collection includes over 9,500 images; together they offer a representative overview of Dutch mills in the second half of the twentieth century.