The Museum of Gothenburg ( sv, Göteborgs stadsmuseum) is a local history museum located in the city centre of Gothenburg in western Sweden. It is located in the East India House ( sv, Ostindiska huset), originally built as the

Swedish East India Company The Swedish East India Company ( sv, Svenska Ostindiska Companiet or ''SOIC'') was founded in Gothenburg, Sweden, in 1731 for the purpose of conducting trade with China and the Far East. The venture was inspired by the success of the Dutch East ...

offices in 1762. The city museum was established in 1861. The City Museum is a

cultural history Cultural history combines the approaches of anthropology and history to examine popular cultural traditions and cultural interpretations of historical experience. It examines the records and narrative descriptions of past matter, encompassing the ...

museum. It displays Gothenburg and West Sweden's history, from the

Viking Age The Viking Age () was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonizing, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. It followed the Migration Period and the Germ ...

to the present day. There is a permanent exhibition about the

History

The museum was founded in the East India House in 1861. Modelled on the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

in London, it initially comprised natural history, art and books and covered art, science and industry. Its founders were Sven Adolf Hedlund, AF Ericsson, August Malm and Victor von Gegerfelt. The merchant

John West Wilson John West Wilson (8 October 1816 – 24 May 1889) was a businessman and arts patron. Biography John West Wilson was born at Hull, United Kingdom. He was the son of Thomas Wilson (1792–1869), founder of the shipping company Thomas Wilson Son ...

paid for a fourth wing which opened in May 1891 shortly after his death. At the time of the Gothenburg Exhibition in 1923 the city's collections were split in two, with the art housed in the

Göteborgs konstmuseum Gothenburg Museum of Art ( sv, Göteborgs konstmuseum) is located at Götaplatsen in Gothenburg, Sweden. It claims to be the third largest art museum in Sweden by size of its collection. Collections The museum holds the world's finest collect ...

and the rest in the Göteborgs naturhistoriska museum. Between 1993 and 1996, several of the city's museums on archaeology, general history and the history of industry, education and theatre merged to form the Göteborg City Museum.

References

External links

Official website
Museums in Gothenburg Gothenburg History museums in Sweden Swedish East India Company Listed buildings in Gothenburg Government buildings in Sweden 1861 establishments in Sweden {{Sweden-museum-stub