Folk Museums
[We cordially endorse Sir Henry Miers' plea for an opeii-iiir museum similar to the Skansen at Stockholm, which would attempt to illustrate every aspect of the history and life of the country. Now that we have a London- Museum, wilt not some public-spirited citizen provide 'us with an " English" museum si niter to that of Stockholm ?—ED. Spectator.] NEARLY fifty years ago Dr. Hazelius, of Stockholm, • transferred to the Swedish nation the unique collection which he had gathered together by the efforts of a life-time, • to illustrate the industrial arts and the manner of life of the people of Sweden and Norway during the past centuries. This was really the earliest attempt to set before the public the conditions under which the peasant folk had lived, and the work which they accomplished, and so to illustrate an aspect of history which had been almost neglected in ordinary museums and art galleries. • For some years the Hazelius collection was distributed and housed in several buildings, each in ,charge of peasant women wearing the old national costume, but the whole group of collections received the name of" The Northern Museum."
The English translation of the official guide in 1889 contained an introduction by Mr. C. H. Derby, which closed with these words : "it is very much to be wished that a British (or English) museum, with a still better claim to that designation than the noble and compre- hensive institution in Bloomsbury, should be founded in London."
Forty years have elapsed and this wish is still unful- filled, though we have at last a "London Museum." Meanwhile much that might have been housed in such a " British " or "English Museum" has been irretrievably lost.
The "Northern Museum" in Stockholm has been re-established in a fine building which was open in 1907, and has grown into a great institution. No less than 116 rooms on three floors, surrounding a great hall, contain masses of objects illustrating not only peasant life in Scandinavia and neighbouring countries, but also the culture of the higher classes ; further, there are special collections illustrating such subjects as hunting and fishing, primitive beliefs and old custom, social institu- tions and handicraft.
In addition to all this there is, near by, a new section known as the "Skansen," which has been in existence since 1891, and was the first "open-air museum." Here are to be seen old cottages and other buildings, windmills, farm-houses, log and turf huts, barns, steeples, even a church, brought from various parts of . Sweden and Norway, re-erected in a public park and furnished with materials of the period to which they belong. They give a vivid picture of peasant life and home industries, such as can never be supplied by mere book illustrations. The park is also a sort of National Zoological Garden containing many living birds and beasts in cages.
A country which does not possess such a collection lacks one of the most powerful aids to the Proper under- standing of national history.
Green's History of the English People in 1874 brought out a great deal which had been entirely overlooked in the conventional histories of that period. They had been mainly occupied with the lives of the great and the rich, and gave no picture of the life of the more humble people.
In the same way our museums and art galleries have been mainly occupied with fine art and the possessions of the wealthy, which consist to a large extent of foreign art and handicraft ; there is little of a truly national character about them : many of them, it is true, are now collecting so-called "bygones," the household utensils and domestie apparatus of earlier years. But there is no comprehensive English museum, or even local museum, showing the habitations and work-rooms and appliances of 'Our ancestors, the Manner in which their houses were built and their industries carried on.
The Folk Museum at Haslemere, collected by the late Master of the Charterhouse, is one . of Scandinavian Peasant . Arts.
Meanwhile, Skansen has received elsewhere the sincerest -form of flattery : it has been imitated with great success at . other places in Scandinavia,. and in many _other countries. , England still lags behind : at Hull and at Hastings, them is the intention to do something: at a few other places, e:g., at Salisbury, at St. Albans, and in the National Museum at Cardiff, individual rooms of the past have been reconstructed in the Museum.. But there is no open- air museum to give us a living picture of our .race.
No' doubt it was far easier to make such a collection fifty years ago in Scandinavia; where at that time, and indeed up to the present, most primitive conditions of life prevailed, and ancient customs have survived, in the remoter country districts, than it would have been in Britain, where the industrial revolution swept away almost all traces of the old dwellings and the handicrafts . which they housed. But much could yet be done by saving and accumulating old buildings otherwise doomed to destruction, both in town and country, and by recon- structing others.
The museums of the country could contribute from their stores enough material to make these live again before the eyes of later generations.
It is surely not too late to carry out such a scheme; but a beginning should be made at Once or the opportunity
Previous page
