The University Museum of Bergen ( no, Universitetsmuseet i Bergen) is a

university museum A university museum is a repository of collections run by a university, typically founded to aid teaching and research within the institution of higher learning. The Ashmolean Museum at the University of Oxford in England is an early example, o ...

Bergen Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland county on the Western Norway, west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the list of towns and cities in Norway, secon ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, 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 ...

. The museum features material related to anthropology, archaeology, botany, geology, zoology, art, and cultural history.

History

The University Museum of Bergen was founded in 1825 by

Wilhelm Frimann Koren Christie Wilhelm Frimann Koren Christie (7 December 1778 – 10 October 1849) was a Norwegian attorney. He was a member of the National Assembly at Eidsvoll in 1814 and served as the Norwegian Constituent Assembly secretary. Background Born in Kristiansu ...

, at the time president of the

Storting The Storting ( no, Stortinget ) (lit. the Great Thing) is the supreme legislature of Norway, established in 1814 by the Constitution of Norway. It is located in Oslo. The unicameral parliament has 169 members and is elected every four years ...

. Founded under the name University Museum of Bergen with the intent of building large collections in the fields of culture and natural history, it became the grounds for most of the academic activity in the city, a tradition which has prevailed since the museum became part of the University of Bergen. The University Museum of Bergen is divided into two departments, the Natural History Collections and the

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 t ...

Collections and Public Outreach and exhibitions. It is also the caretaker of the museum garden, formerly the botanical garden, surrounding the natural history building, and the city's

arboretum An arboretum (plural: arboreta) in a general sense is a botanical collection composed exclusively of trees of a variety of species. Originally mostly created as a section in a larger garden or park for specimens of mostly non-local species, man ...

. This was the first dedicated museum building in Norway. In its early years, the museum contained numerous art collections, including several works by the painter

Johan Christian Dahl Johan Christian Claussen Dahl (24 February 178814 October 1857), often known as or , was a Danish- Norwegian artist who is considered the first great romantic painter in Norway, the founder of the "golden age" of Norwegian painting, and, by som ...

, cultural artefacts, and craftwork items. In 1931, the museum moved from its location in the Seminarium Fredericianum building near

Bergen Cathedral School Bergen Cathedral School ( Norwegian: ''Bergen Katedralskole'', Latin: ''Schola Cathedralis Bergensis'', formerly known as Bergens lærdeskole and Bergen latinskole and colloquially known as Katten) is an upper secondary school in Bergen, Norway. Lo ...

(''Bergen katedralskole''), to a new building southwest of Lille Lungegårdsvannet. The current natural history building was designed by Johan Henrik Nebelong and finished in 1865. Bergen Museum moved in during 1866. The wings of the building were added in 1898 and the botanical garden was laid out between 1897 and 1899. The cultural history department got its own building in 1927. The increasing research activity at the museum from the late 19th century and onward led directly to the founding of the University of Bergen in 1946.

References

External links

Universitetsmuseet i Bergen

University Museum of Bergen

Universitetsmuseet i Bergen blir stengt på ubestemt tid
Museums in Bergen Natural history museums in Norway University museums in Norway University of Bergen History museums in Norway 1825 establishments in Norway Museums established in 1825 {{norway-museum-stub