* Explains why batik is such a powerful reminder of times past* Showcases a new approach to collection history research In Collectors Collected, a picture of Dutch colonial culture is drawn with the help of batik. While the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam was re-evaluating the history of its collections and objects, Daan van Darrel performed a pilot study on a selection from the museum's batik collection which resulted in a new approach to collection history research.Studying the social biographies of batik textiles-and more specifically the collectors-and then categorizing the results revealed the usefulness of gathering the different contexts that objects live in before they become musealized. Not only did the museum learn more about the actual people behind the objects and about the different meanings attributed to the objects during their lifetimes, but it also became aware of the very important role batik once played in the colonial socio-cultural environment and continues to play among descendants of the participants in that society.