![Stará Lubovna 8](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d1/Star%C3%A1_Lubovna_8.jpg)
An open-air museum (or open air 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 exhibits collections of buildings and artifacts out-of-doors. It is also frequently known as a museum of buildings or a
folk museum
A folk museum is a museum that deals with folk culture and heritage. 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 ...
.
Definition
Open air is “the unconfined atmosphere…outside buildings...” In the loosest sense, an open-air museum is any institution that includes one or more buildings in its collections, including farm museums,
historic house museum
A historic house museum is a house of historic significance that has been transformed into a museum. Historic furnishings may be displayed in a way that reflects their original placement and usage in a home. Historic house museums are held to a ...
s, and
archaeological open-air museum
An archaeological open-air museum is a non-profit permanent institution with outdoor true-to-scale architectural reconstructions primarily based on archaeological sources. It holds collections of intangible heritage resources and provides an int ...
s. Mostly, 'open-air museum is applied to a museum that specializes in the collection and re-erection of multiple old buildings at large outdoor sites, usually in settings of recreated landscapes of the past, and often include
living history
Living history is an activity that incorporates historical tools, activities and dress into an interactive presentation that seeks to give observers and participants a sense of stepping back in time. Although it does not necessarily seek to ree ...
. They may, therefore, be described as building museums. European open-air museums tended to be sited originally in regions where wooden architecture prevailed, as wooden structures may be translocated without substantial loss of authenticity.
Common to all open-air museums, including the earliest ones of the 19th century, is the teaching of the history of everyday living by people from all segments of society.
Origins
![Skansen, Stockholm, Sweden WDL2622](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0f/Skansen%2C_Stockholm%2C_Sweden_WDL2622.png)
The idea of the open-air museum dates to the 1790s. The first proponent of the idea was the Swiss thinker
Charles de Bonstetten, and was based on a visit to an exhibit of sculptures of Norwegian peasants in native costumes in the park of
Fredensborg Palace
Fredensborg Palace ( da, Fredensborg Slot; ) is a palace located on the eastern shore of Lake Esrum ( Danish, ''Esrum Sø'') in Fredensborg on the island of Zealand (''Sjælland'') in Denmark. It is the Danish Royal Family’s spring and autumn ...
in
Denmark
)
, song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast")
, song_type = National and royal anthem
, image_map = EU-Denmark.svg
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark
...
,"Valley of the Norsemen". He believed that traditional peasant houses should be preserved against modernity, but failed to attract support for the idea.
The first major steps towards the creation of open-air museums was taken in
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...
in 1881, when King
Oscar II
Oscar II (Oscar Fredrik; 21 January 1829 – 8 December 1907) was King of Sweden from 1872 until his death in 1907 and King of Norway from 1872 to 1905.
Oscar was the son of King Oscar I and Queen Josephine. He inherited the Swedish and Norweg ...
transferred four historic farm buildings and the
stave church
A stave church is a medieval wooden Christian church building once common in north-western Europe. The name derives from the building's structure of post and lintel construction, a type of timber framing where the load-bearing ore-pine posts ar ...
from
Gol to the royal manor at
Bygdøy
Bygdøy or Bygdø is a peninsula situated on the western side of Oslo, Norway. Administratively, Bygdøy belongs to the borough of Frogner; historically Bygdøy was part of Aker Municipality and became part of Oslo in 1948.
Bygdøy is a popul ...
near
Oslo
Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...
(Christiania) for public viewing. This, in turn, in 1884 and 1885 inspired
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 ...
, founder of 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
Stockholm
Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...
, to establish his own 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 ...
, adjacent to the Nordic Museum. Skansen, opened to the public in 1891, was a more ambitious undertaking, including farm buildings from across
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...
, folk costumes, live animals, folk music, and demonstrations of folk crafts. The success of the Nordic Museum and Skansen ensured that the open-air museum idea spread to countries across the world. Already in 1894 the
Norwegian Museum of Cultural History
Norsk Folkemuseum (Norwegian Museum of Cultural History), at Bygdøy, Oslo, Norway, is a museum of cultural history with extensive collections of artifacts from all social groups and all regions of the country. It also incorporates a large op ...
(''Norsk Folkemuseum'') was founded in Oslo by
Hans Aall
Hans Jacob Aall (20 September 1869, in Arendal – 6 November 1946, in Oslo) was a Norwegian librarian and museum director.
He was born in Arendal to ship owner Diderik Maria Aall and Marie Elisabeth Herlofson. He was a great-grandson of Niels ...
, inspired by Skansen. Aall bought a large tract of land adjacent to King Oscar's royal collections, probably with a merger between them in mind. The open-air ''Norsk Folkemuseum'' was opened at Bygdøy in 1902. In 1907 the royal collections were incorporated after the death of King Oscar and the dissolution of the
union with Sweden.
Most open-air museums concentrate on rural culture. However, since the opening of the first town museum,
The Old Town in
Aarhus,
Denmark
)
, song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast")
, song_type = National and royal anthem
, image_map = EU-Denmark.svg
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark
...
, in 1914, town culture has also become a scope of open-air museums. In many cases, new town quarters are being constructed in existing rural culture museums.
Living-history museums
Living-history museums, including living-farm museums and
living museum
A living museum, also known as a living history museum, is a type of museum which recreates historical settings to simulate a past time period, providing visitors with an experiential interpretation of history. It is a type of museum that recrea ...
s, are open-air museums where costumed interpreters portray period life in an earlier era. The interpreters act as if they are living in a different time and place and perform everyday household tasks, crafts, and occupations. The goal is to demonstrate older lifestyles and pursuits to modern audiences. Household tasks might include cooking on an open
hearth
A hearth () is the place in a home where a fire is or was traditionally kept for home heating and for cooking, usually constituted by at least a horizontal hearthstone and often enclosed to varying degrees by any combination of reredos (a lo ...
,
churning butter,
spinning wool and
weaving
Weaving is a method of textile production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. Other methods are knitting, crocheting, felting, and braiding or plaiting. The longitudinal ...
, and farming without modern equipment. Many living museums feature traditional craftsmen at work, such as a
blacksmith
A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such as gates, gr ...
,
pewtersmith,
silversmith
A silversmith is a metalworker who crafts objects from silver. The terms ''silversmith'' and ''goldsmith'' are not exactly synonyms as the techniques, training, history, and guilds are or were largely the same but the end product may vary grea ...
,
weaver,
tanner,
armorer
Historically, an armourer is a person who makes personal armour, especially plate armour. In modern terms, an armourer is a member of a military or police force who works in an armoury and maintains and repairs small arms and weapons systems, ...
,
cooper
Cooper, Cooper's, Coopers and similar may refer to:
* Cooper (profession), a maker of wooden casks and other staved vessels
Arts and entertainment
* Cooper (producers), alias of Dutch producers Klubbheads
* Cooper (video game character), in ...
,
potter
A potter is someone who makes pottery.
Potter may also refer to:
Places United States
*Potter, originally a section on the Alaska Railroad, currently a neighborhood of Anchorage, Alaska, US
* Potter, Arkansas
*Potter, Nebraska
* Potters, New Je ...
,
miller
A miller is a person who operates a mill, a machine to grind a grain (for example corn or wheat) to make flour. Milling is among the oldest of human occupations. "Miller", "Milne" and other variants are common surnames, as are their equivalent ...
,
sawyer
*A sawyer (occupation) is someone who saws wood.
*Sawyer, a fallen tree stuck on the bottom of a river, where it constitutes a danger to boating.
Places in the United States
Communities
*Sawyer, Kansas
*Sawyer, Kentucky
* Sawyer, Michigan
* Saw ...
,
cabinet-maker,
woodcarver
Wood carving is a form of woodworking by means of a cutting tool (knife) in one hand or a chisel by two hands or with one hand on a chisel and one hand on a mallet, resulting in a wooden figure or figurine, or in the sculptural ornamentation ...
,
printer
Printer may refer to:
Technology
* Printer (publishing), a person or a company
* Printer (computing), a hardware device
* Optical printer for motion picture films
People
* Nariman Printer (fl. c. 1940), Indian journalist and activist
* James ...
, doctor, and
general storekeeper.
North American innovations
![Williamsburg Farmers' Market 2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/ff/Williamsburg_Farmers%27_Market_2.jpg)
The North American open-air museum, more commonly called a living-history museum, had a different, slightly later origin than the European, and the visitor experience is different. The first was
Henry Ford
Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American industrialist, business magnate, founder of the Ford Motor Company, and chief developer of the assembly line technique of mass production. By creating the first automobile that ...
's
Greenfield Village
The Henry Ford (also known as the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation and Greenfield Village, and as the Edison Institute) is a history museum complex in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn, Michigan, United States. The museum collection conta ...
in
Dearborn, Michigan (1928), where Ford intended his collection to be “a pocket edition of America”.
[Kenneth Hudson, ''Museums of Influence'', Cambridge University Press, 1987.] Colonial Williamsburg
Colonial Williamsburg is a living-history museum and private foundation presenting a part of the historic district in the city of Williamsburg, Virginia, United States. The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation has 7300 employees at this location a ...
(opened in 1934), though, had a greater influence on museum development in North America. It influenced such projects through the continent as
Mystic Seaport
Mystic Seaport Museum or Mystic Seaport: The Museum of America and the Sea in Mystic, Connecticut is the largest maritime museum in the United States. It is notable for its collection of sailing ships and boats and for the re-creation of the cra ...
,
Plimoth Plantation
Plimoth Patuxet is a complex of living history museums in Plymouth, Massachusetts, founded in 1947. Formerly Plimoth Plantation, it replicates the original settlement of the Plymouth Colony established in the 17th century by the English coloni ...
, and
Fortress Louisbourg
The Fortress of Louisbourg (french: Forteresse de Louisbourg) is a National Historic Site and the location of a one-quarter partial reconstruction of an 18th-century French fortress at Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. Its two s ...
. The approach to interpretation tends to differentiate the North American from the European model. In Europe, the tendency is to usually focus on the buildings.
In North America, many open-air museums include interpreters who dress in period costume and conduct period crafts and everyday work.
The living museum is, therefore, viewed as an attempt to recreate to the fullest extent conditions of a
culture
Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups.Tyl ...
,
natural environment
The natural environment or natural world encompasses all life, living and non-living things occurring nature, naturally, meaning in this case not Artificiality, artificial. The term is most often applied to the Earth or some parts of Earth. Th ...
, or
historical period. The objective is immersion, using exhibits so that visitors can experience the specific culture, environment or historical period using the physical senses.
Performance and historiographic practices at American living museums have been critiqued in the past several years by scholars in anthropology and theater for creating false senses of authenticity and accuracy, and for neglecting to bear witness to some of the darker aspects of the American past (e.g., slavery and other forms of injustice). Even before such critiques were published, sites such as Williamsburg and others had begun to add more interpretation of difficult history.
[ Scott Magelssen, ''Living History Museums: Undoing History Through Performance'', Scarecrow Press, 2007]
List of open-air and living museums by country
See also
*
Sculpture garden
A sculpture garden or sculpture park is an outdoor garden or park which includes the presentation of sculpture, usually several permanently sited works in durable materials in landscaped surroundings.
A sculpture garden may be private, owned by ...
*
Historical reenactment
Historical reenactment (or re-enactment) is an educational or entertainment activity in which mainly amateur hobbyists and history enthusiasts dress in historic uniforms or costumes and follow a plan to recreate aspects of a historical event or ...
*
Human zoo
Human zoos, also known as ethnological expositions, were public displays of people, usually in a so-called "natural" or "primitive" state. They were most prominent during the 19th and 20th centuries. These displays sometimes emphasized the sup ...
*
List of Renaissance fairs
This is a list of Renaissance faires and other Medieval-themed faires worldwide.
North America
United States
Included below are the permanent-site fairs in the United States which are either notably long running, which regularly have had at lea ...
*
List of tourist attractions providing reenactment
The following is a list of tourist attractions, by country, that regularly use "living history" or historical reenactments either with professional actors or amateur groups.
Most castles which open to the public use reenactment in some form or an ...
References
Bibliography
* Hegard, Tonte (1993). ″Romantikk og fortidsvern. Historien om de første friluftsmuseene i Norge″. Oslo, Universitetsforlaget. .
* Hegard, Tonte (1994). ″Hans Aall – mannen, visjonen og verket″. Oslo, Norsk Folkemuseum. .
*
* Langer, Jiří (2022). ''Open-Air Museums in Europe.'' Cambridge Scholars Publishing. . Sampl
External links
Association for Living History, Farm and Agricultural MuseumsRevista Digital Nueva MuseologiaLatin American Theory
An extensive list of Open-air museums in Europe.
America's Outdoor History MuseumsPhotos from Museum of Folk Architecture and Life
;Museum websites
Open Air Museum BokrijkLeading open-air museum in Flanders, Belgium
Valachian Ethnographic Museum in Rožnov pod Radhoštěm, Czech RepublicHjerl Hede an open-air museum in Denmark showing life from the early days until about 100 years ago.
The Old Town (Den Gamle By) Aa open-air museum in Denmark showing urban life.
Jamtli– One of Sweden's largest and oldest regional open-air museums, in Östersund.
{{Authority control
Open-air museums,
Types of museums
Cultural heritage
Architectural history
Vernacular architecture
Artisans
Craft occupations