Experienced, recollected, and reconstructed. The establishment of Nordic forest museums in the 1940s–60s

Authors

  • Leena Paaskoski

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5617/nm.3029

Keywords:

forest museum, forest culture, the Nordic countries, musealisation, nostalgia

Abstract

The article focuses on the Nordic forest museums established in the 1940s–60s, during the period when Finland, Sweden, Norway, and even Denmark experienced rapidly changing forestry. These museums shared their timing and their theme, but did they also share the ultimate ideas, motives and visions? The article discusses the actors who took the initiative in establishing museums, as well as their backgrounds and reasons for collecting, documenting, and exhibiting forest history. It concentrates in particular on two Finnish cases which are seen in a wider Nordic context to find out whether there were common Nordic visions of forest museums – as there was a lot of shared forest history. The article was written as part of a project called Happy Days? The Everyday Life and Nostalgia of the Extended 1950s, led by Professor Hanna Snellman of Jyväskylä and Helsinki Universities and financed by the Academy of Finland.

Downloads

Issue

Section

Articles