The Frans and Willemina de Hen-Bijl Collection of Musical Instruments is primarily comprised of ethnographic objects from countries including Bolivia, Mexico, Europe, Indonesia, India, Morocco, Africa, and Southern and Eastern Asia. There are between 150 and 200 objects in this collection. There is also a large collection of both audio and video recordings related to the instruments in this collection and the peoples from which they came.

The instruments were collected by prominent Belgian organologist and ethnomusicologist Professor Ferdinand J. de Hen whose main interests are the history and structure of classical European, Indian, and African musical instruments. De Hen received his training in Antwerp, Louvain, Cologne, and London. He has degrees in Colonial and Administrative Sciences and Political and Administrative Sciences from the Institute Universitaire des Territoires d’Outremer, Antwerp. He also has a degree in African Linguistics from the University of Louven, and a doctorate in musicology and anthropology from Cologne University, with a dissertation on African instruments. 

While working on his doctorate, he took a research course on African and Indian Music at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London University. De Hen also worked as a scientific collaborator and research assistant at the Museum of Instruments in Brussels, as the Director of the Artistic Humanities (Brussels), as Professor of the Chapelle Musicale Reine Elisabeth (Waterloo), and Professor & Head of Department in Musicology at the State University (Ghent), as Professor of the Hoger Instituut voor Dramatische Kunst (Antwerp), and a guest Professor at the University of Keele (UK). In 1987 he was appointed to the Peter Paul Rubens chair at the University of California, Berkeley. He became an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Overseas Sciences (Brussels) in 1989 and a member of the Academie européenne des Sciences et des Arts (Paris) in 2003. He has given lectures in Osaka, Kyoto, Cologne, Belfast, Denver, Brussels, Antwerp, and The Hague. He has also published seven books and 250 articles, including a book with Roger Bragard on the history of instruments that has been translated into several languages.

Named for his parents, the collection was acquired during his research expeditions. His collecting journeys were often quite exciting. He traveled through much of Afghanistan on horseback collecting instruments. While there he also followed a Khutchi tribe on foot for days without making contact; as de Hen recalled, “They have to invite you otherwise they may shoot you… I finally was invited.” In Iran Jaya (New Guinea) he narrowly escaped being kidnapped by the Dani tribe. He was adopted twice: once by an old Berber woman in the Ahansali tribe (Morocco) and another time by Princess Thopi in her clan in Swaziland. Even at home he was reminded of his travels: he “had a wonderful butterfly come out in Belgium from an instrument brought back from Swaziland.”