Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - First part - IV. Education and Mental Culture - 7. Public Collections and Institutions for Science and Art. Periodical Literature. By B. Lundstedt, Ph. D., Librarian at the Royal Library, Stockholm - The North Museum and Skansen, by N. E. Hammarstedt, Amanuensis, North Museum, Stockholm
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THE NORTH MUSEUM AND SKANSEN.
391
Next to the collection of peasant-objects ranks for amplitude and value the
Guild Section, which, for the sake of comparison, also embraces a very
considerable number of German guild-objects, and with which there is connected
a section containing objects illustrating the history of labour. Furthermore, there
is a section illustrating the mode of life of the higher classes during different
periods, and at the same time the development of the different styles of art.
There is also a ceramic section containing mostly Swedish and Danish faiences
and Scandinavian earthenware, a collection of glass, one of uniforms and weapons,
a naval section, an ecclesiastical section, a section for textile art, one for musical
instruments, one for instruments of punishment, one for the fire-service and the
police, one for mementos of eminent Swedish men and women, one for objects
of Jewish cult, and so on, the very rich pharmaceutic collection not to be
forgotten. Unfortunately, it has of låte proved necessary to store away a
considerable portion of the collections, on account of their rapid and great
increase.
Not satisfied with having founded the museum above described in
outline, Hazelius began in 1891, near the new building of the North
Museum, to lay out an Open-air Museum — being an annex, though of
a distinct and wholly unique character. For the main museum he had
already procured complete interiors of peasant-homes, and these —
showing the ethnographical objects in their everyday, internal combination —
proved the most instructive to the public of the whole varying
contents of the museum. Consequently the thought arose in the mind of
the Director, to incorporate with the museum buildings with their
furniture fittings; and it was to solve this problem that the open-air
museum, which bears the name of Skansen, was founded in the aforesaid
year. But besides this object, several other advantages were gained,
among them a suitable exhibition place for such objects as it was
difficult to house within the walls of an ordinary museum. Moreover, the
open-air museum became a place where living pictures from the nature
and folk-life of the Scandinavian North could be exhibited. A uniquely
planned zoological garden of the North and, to a certain extent, a
botanical garden, although unconfined, have been laid out in Skansen, and
on certain occasions every year, national-festivals and historical
processions are got up there, which give the public an opportunity to
become acquainted, by means of actual and living object lessons, with the
Swedish people in times past and present.
Among the various attractions of Skansen, we may here mention some
particular ones. Among the objects exhibited, special attention should be called to
the peasant-cottages and other buildings, which have been moved to Skansen
from the places where they originally stood, and which not only by their
furniture and fittings, but also by their immediate surroundings, present faithful
pictures from the provinces where they originated, and at the same time, seen as
a whole, show the principal features of the history of Swedish peasant dwellings.
Besides a whole Lapplanders’ camp, with Lapps, dogs, and a reindeer-yard, and
an Eskimo village with both winter and summer huts, with dogs, sledges, and
kayak, we find heie the very primitive Swedish charcoal-burner’s hut, and even
the unique »Slogboden» (shed for hay-makers at the forest-marshes), the simple
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