Kees Zandvliet

Kees Zandvliet is a Dutch cartographic historian and former curator at the Rijksmuseum. He is recognized for scholarship on Dutch colonial cartography and mapmaking during the Dutch Golden Age.

Dutch colonial cartography is the mapping of territories, trade routes, settlements, and resources connected with Dutch overseas expansion. Zandvliet's research examines these maps as both geographic records and products of colonial power.

He served as a curator at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Curatorial work involves researching, interpreting, and caring for historical objects such as maps, prints, and atlases.

They record the geographic knowledge used by Dutch traders, officials, and navigators during a period of major overseas expansion. They also reveal how commercial and colonial interests shaped the way regions were represented.