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A folk museum is a
museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make thes ...
that deals with
folk culture Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging fro ...
and
heritage Heritage may refer to: History and society * A heritage asset is a preexisting thing of value today ** Cultural heritage is created by humans ** Natural heritage is not * Heritage language Biology * Heredity, biological inheritance of physica ...
. Such museums cover local life in rural communities. A folk museum typically displays historical objects that were used as part of the people's everyday lives. Examples of such objects include clothes and tools. Many folk museums are also
open-air museum An open-air museum (or open air museum) is a museum that exhibits collections of buildings and artifacts out-of-doors. It is also frequently known as a museum of buildings or a folk museum. Definition Open air is “the unconfined atmosphere†...
s and some cover
rural history In historiography, rural history is a field of study focusing on the history of societies in rural areas. At its inception, the field was based on the economic history of agriculture. Since the 1980s it has become increasingly influenced by social ...
.


History

The concept of open-air museums originated in
Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion#Europe, subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, ...
in the late 19th century. The Swedish folklorist
Artur Hazelius Artur Immanuel Hazelius (30 November 1833 – 27 May 1901) was a Swedish teacher, scholar, folklorist and museum director. He was the founder of both the Nordic Museum (''Nordiska museet'') and the Skansen open-air museum in Stockholm. Ba ...
founded what was to become the
Nordic Museum The Nordic Museum ( sv, Nordiska museet) is a museum located on Djurgården, an island in central Stockholm, Sweden, dedicated to the cultural history and ethnography of Sweden from the early modern period (in Swedish history, it is said t ...
in 1873 to house an ethnographic collection of peasant furniture, clothes, tools, toys and other objects. He later set up the open-air museum
Skansen Skansen (; "the Sconce") is the oldest open-air museum and zoo in Sweden located on the island Djurgården in Stockholm, Sweden. It was opened on 11 October 1891 by Artur Hazelius (1833–1901) to show the way of life in the different parts ...
in Stockholm in 1891, where he erected about 150 houses and farmsteads from all over Sweden, transporting them piece by piece and rebuilding them to provide a unique picture of traditional Sweden. Skansen became a model for other open-air establishments in Northern Europe.


Examples

The
National Folk Museum of Korea National Folk Museum of Korea is a national museum of South Korea, located within the grounds of the Gyeongbokgung Palace in Jongno-gu, Seoul. It uses replicas of historical objects to illustrate the history of traditional life of the Korean pe ...
was established in 1945 and provides a history of the Korean people from prehistory to the early 20th century, with over 98,000 artefacts housed in three main exhibition halls. It includes open-air exhibits, such as replicas of typical village structures, grinding mills, huts for rice storage, and pits where
kimchi ''Kimchi'' (; ko, 김치, gimchi, ), is a traditional Korean side dish of salted and fermented vegetables, such as napa cabbage and Korean radish. A wide selection of seasonings are used, including '' gochugaru'' (Korean chili powder), ...
pots were stored over winter. Among the most notable folk museums are: *
Craft and Folk Art Museum Craft Contemporary, formerly the Craft and Folk Art Museum, is a non-profit, non-collecting arts museum dedicated to showcasing contemporary craft in Los Angeles, California. The museum is located on Los Angeles' Museum Row on Wilshire Boulevard, ...
, on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles, California, now also known as "Craft Contemporary" *
Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum (AARFAM) is the United States' first and the world's oldest continually operated museum dedicated to the preservation, collection, and exhibition of American folk art. Located just outside the histori ...
, adjacent to historic Williamsburg, Virginia, asserted to be the earliest-opened still-operating museum of American folk art


See also

*
Local museum A local museum or local history museum is a type of museum that shows the historical development of a place/region (local history) using exhibits. These museums usually maintain a collection of historic three-dimensional objects which are exh ...
*
Open-air museum An open-air museum (or open air museum) is a museum that exhibits collections of buildings and artifacts out-of-doors. It is also frequently known as a museum of buildings or a folk museum. Definition Open air is “the unconfined atmosphere†...


References


External links

* Types of museums {{Museum-stub