Ode to Jet van Dam van Isselt | What was her influence on the Amsterdam art politics?

This ode is a plea, a plea to research the significance of Henriëtte (Jet for intimates) van Dam van Isselt (1895-1972) for Amsterdam's art policy. Graduated (in law) in 1918, appointed secretary of the Amsterdam Commission of Assistance in Art Matters in that year, married the prominent social-democrat A.B. Kleerekoper in 1922 (a ‘leftist’ husband, reportedly in protest against her considerable origins), appointed head of the Bureau of Art Affairs (head commissioner and later referendaris) at the City of Amsterdam in 1923, 28 years young! She remained so until 1940 (where was the ministerial regulation of March 1924 that married women were not allowed to hold public service positions?). In 1940, she was fired for refusing to sign the declaration of loyalty required by the occupying forces. 

These were the times of legendary aldermen Floor Wibaut (1859-1936), including Housing and Arts Affairs (1914-1927 and 1929-1931) and Emanuel Boekman (1889-1940), including Arts Affairs (1931-1933 and 1935-1940). Art Affairs included (urban) museums, theatre and music. There were also plans to hold art exhibitions in the districts, but this never got off the ground. At the time, Amsterdam was one of the few municipalities with an art policy with a corresponding budget, including in the 1920s and 1930s for buying art and commissioning artists. 

Contemporaries describe Jet van Dam van Isselt as energetic, intelligent, energetic, sometimes headstrong and also a little extravagant. With such a character, it cannot fail to be that she played an important substantive role in the Municipality's art policy during all those years of her tenure. But almost nothing can be found about that. In the authoritative 1983 Art Policy in Amsterdam 1920-1940 by Tony Jansen and Jan Rogier, her name appears several times, but never in connection with policy or substantive decisions. Her only known substantive achievement is the appointment of the young, promising designer Fré Cohen (1903-1943) at the City Print Shop in 1929. There, she produced, among other things, the pioneering design for the Giro booklet, composed largely of typesetting, a completely new way of producing printed matter. 

After her resignation in 1940, Jet van Dam van Isselt went to study art history in Utrecht, first with Prof Willem Vogelsang and later with Prof Jan van Gelder. She graduated in 1949. From 1945 to 1947, she was head of Art Affairs at the Ministry of Education, Arts and Sciences, briefly, because minister Jos Gielen saw nothing in the art policy of his predecessor Gerardus van der Leeuw and his head of Art Affairs. She was appointed second vice-president at the Historical Institute in Rome in 1950. Italy was to become her great love. She retired in 1961.  

The internet offers no picture of her; the only known image (so far) is a profile drawing made by Nico de Laaf (1893-1966), who regularly drew government officials and city councillors, in the Stadsarchief Amsterdam.