Skansen is known to many of us who have studied for an MA in museum studies as the world's first open-air museum. It covers 20 hectares in Stockholm in Sweden and was unveiled to great acclaim in 1891.
The big difference between Skansen and the museums that came before it was that the most important objects were its historic buildings, which had been moved to new positions within the site.
The museum's founder, Artur Hazelius, had been considering moving the buildings since at least 1884. The cost and difficulty of doing this could have stopped the project before it even got started, but Hazelius, with the help of many donors and the Swedish government, finally began work in 1888.
Skansen was, according to one contemporary newspaper, to be "our old Sweden in miniature". Industrialisation and modern farming methods were changing the country forever. Many old buildings and traditions were being lost as young people moved to the cities to look for work.
Skansen's buildings were furnished with all of the items that would have been found in them historically and many of the gardens and surrounding areas were filled with plants that were local to the area of Sweden where the buildings came from.
The museum recorded, celebrated and enacted many of the traditional festivals and customs of Sweden in order to try to preserve them. Its format proved so popular that by 1900, 500,000 visitors were coming through the gates each year, even though Stockholm's population was only 300,000.
With success like this and the loss of traditional lifestyles in countries all over the world it is not surprising that open-air museums quickly caught on, and soon became common in Scandinavia and other parts of Europe.
Areas with a timber-building tradition found moving the structures easier and it was in these countries that open-air museums developed first and are still the strongest.
Sten Rentzhog gives us an in-depth history of open-air museums right up to the present day. He explores the reasons for the foundation of many museums, the key individuals behind them and how they developed over the years.
Considerable time is spent on American museums as well as ones in Europe. The US museums covered include Greenfield Village, which the car manufacturer Henry Ford created as his personal view of American history.
He moved buildings with historical importance there as well as those that were typically American. These included the house and laboratories where Thomas Edison invented the telephone, phonograph and electric light. Ford's museum was the first to explore the real potential of museum education.
Another American multimillionaire who used his fortune to create an open-air museum was John Rockefeller at Colonial Williamsburg, the former capital of Virginia. It was still inhabited by many local people when Rockefeller started to buy it up; in the end he spent $70m creating the museum.
Rentzhog also writes from his personal experience as director of Jamtli, an open-air museum in central Sweden that he has transformed into a living history museum. He illustrates many of the developments in museums with specific examples and shows his obvious passion for living history and learning through direct experience.
He also discusses some of the failings of open-air museums, such as how they often show a sanitised version of history. Not many people would want to experience the smells of the past, even if health and safety legislation would allow it.
The final few chapters exploring the future of open-air museums are too little, too late. Sustainability, workforce development, lifelong learning and partnership working are all tackled.
These issues are common to all museums but for this book to have been more than a readable history, Rentzhog should have explored these key issues further and given us more of the vision for the future that the title suggests.
Jonathan Wallis is the assistant head of museums at Derby City Council
The big difference between Skansen and the museums that came before it was that the most important objects were its historic buildings, which had been moved to new positions within the site.
The museum's founder, Artur Hazelius, had been considering moving the buildings since at least 1884. The cost and difficulty of doing this could have stopped the project before it even got started, but Hazelius, with the help of many donors and the Swedish government, finally began work in 1888.
Skansen was, according to one contemporary newspaper, to be "our old Sweden in miniature". Industrialisation and modern farming methods were changing the country forever. Many old buildings and traditions were being lost as young people moved to the cities to look for work.
Skansen's buildings were furnished with all of the items that would have been found in them historically and many of the gardens and surrounding areas were filled with plants that were local to the area of Sweden where the buildings came from.
The museum recorded, celebrated and enacted many of the traditional festivals and customs of Sweden in order to try to preserve them. Its format proved so popular that by 1900, 500,000 visitors were coming through the gates each year, even though Stockholm's population was only 300,000.
With success like this and the loss of traditional lifestyles in countries all over the world it is not surprising that open-air museums quickly caught on, and soon became common in Scandinavia and other parts of Europe.
Areas with a timber-building tradition found moving the structures easier and it was in these countries that open-air museums developed first and are still the strongest.
Sten Rentzhog gives us an in-depth history of open-air museums right up to the present day. He explores the reasons for the foundation of many museums, the key individuals behind them and how they developed over the years.
Considerable time is spent on American museums as well as ones in Europe. The US museums covered include Greenfield Village, which the car manufacturer Henry Ford created as his personal view of American history.
He moved buildings with historical importance there as well as those that were typically American. These included the house and laboratories where Thomas Edison invented the telephone, phonograph and electric light. Ford's museum was the first to explore the real potential of museum education.
Another American multimillionaire who used his fortune to create an open-air museum was John Rockefeller at Colonial Williamsburg, the former capital of Virginia. It was still inhabited by many local people when Rockefeller started to buy it up; in the end he spent $70m creating the museum.
Rentzhog also writes from his personal experience as director of Jamtli, an open-air museum in central Sweden that he has transformed into a living history museum. He illustrates many of the developments in museums with specific examples and shows his obvious passion for living history and learning through direct experience.
He also discusses some of the failings of open-air museums, such as how they often show a sanitised version of history. Not many people would want to experience the smells of the past, even if health and safety legislation would allow it.
The final few chapters exploring the future of open-air museums are too little, too late. Sustainability, workforce development, lifelong learning and partnership working are all tackled.
These issues are common to all museums but for this book to have been more than a readable history, Rentzhog should have explored these key issues further and given us more of the vision for the future that the title suggests.
Jonathan Wallis is the assistant head of museums at Derby City Council
By Sten Rentzog
Jamtli Förlag, £39.50
ISBN 978 91 7948 2084
Jamtli Förlag, £39.50
ISBN 978 91 7948 2084
