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The National Museum of Finland 1916- 1996 - from Preservation to Presentation

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The National Museum of Finland 1916- 1996 - from Preservation to Presentation NORDI S K MU S EOLOGI 1996•2, S . 1 39 -148 THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF FINLAND 1916- 1996 - FROM PRESERVATION TO PRESENTATION Ritva Ware The National Museum ofFinland was opened to the public in January 1916 This was more than fifty years after the need ofa national museum had first been discussed in public in Finland and almost thirty years after the serious planning ofthe museum was started. The construction ofthe present museum building began in 1905 by permission of Czar Nicholas JI, after years ofdebates both about the location ofthe museum and about its architecture. The paper outlines how the architectural concept was developed and how - in face ofits ongoing renovation - the concern for the museum building as a national monu­ ment inevitably comes into conflict with the ideas for the presentation ofthe collections to a modern public. The National Museum was used for more These fundamental changes in the use than sixty years as a museum, a storage of the museum building opened the way building and an office building of the to restore the building as a museum. State Archaeological Commission, now­ However, it was as late as 1996, that the adays the National Board of Antiquities planning of a thorough repair and renova­ (Museovirasto/Museiverket). It was as late tion of the museum building and of all its as 1973 that the offices of the National exhibitions could be started_ The rethin­ Board of Antiquities moved to a separate king of the actual role of a national office building near the museum, a former museum is also included in this process. school at Nervanderinkatu 13. The great Here the National Museum of Finland is need for a proper and sufficient storage sharing its problems with many other old space was solved for some decades in and large museums of history and archa­ 1981, when the building of the central eology round the world. storage in Orimattila was inaugurated. The National Museum of Finland is a f)mlJ.\TUo' M!EO WOfJO "I! ISTOR IAl.Lloj ETI/OfJ! AflSW1' till\!'.0011 ' 1 /WIW~~h · [l li11 ttG ' TI U.' !JW:OUX'ISKT' //l~TO Rll KTj E TNOfJIArn~T ' Hllll:Utl 'J 'llEUlttGro ilO, r- 140 I i. I I Ji;o11.•.mc.1·r,o,.,\\>I' 1rt.JAb'.i'f·mu~.~'I'· Lil~ u~ ru3 ·N.~towca.5 -mJTOl!lt\\..l..l~ f.THOG.!lt1f!J r.rn·r.l.J)f.00 : i·l!M~t\C!&ih ;@ T i1HK,' l l lJ, ' i\.\Hl: C UY'.J ~ ttri'l\.5TOa!J I IT C.:TIIOC.fJlflSi\i ·ri t!ID..ltl · 1 · 1u:LS.l lf:',rot~ ..1~ ;.~;_::::-.'~: ..r.-·'-•~i.JL ~ . "-·"- ..... J-,.«..... Gesellius, Lindgren and Saarinen 1904. Principal drawings, elevation and ground-plan ofth e mai11 floor. product of late 19th century thinking and the 19th century she had grown more and expectations both as an institution and as more independent politically, economical­ a building. It was created at an important ly and culturally. Several national institu­ moment in the history of Finland, which tions were founded during the late part of since 1809 had been an autonomous the century, the national museum being Grand Duchy of Russia. In the course of one of them. Conscious work towards a The Nt1tiont1l /\1useum ofFi11!t111d : centrt1l !1t1ll J996 . Photo Mt1tti H11uhkt1. distinctly Finnish culture had started as Lindgren and Elie! Saarinen, who later early as the turn of the 18th and 19th cen­ won reputation as the prominent archi­ turies and both a national consciousness tects in the turn-of-the-century Finland, and a national feeling were growing. Fin­ has made the building an architectural land's relations with the Russian adminis­ monument in which also foreign scholars tration moved into a new phase during and architectural tourists take an interest. the so-called years of oppression between Hence the renovation of the museum will 1899 and 1905, when Finland's autono­ be the renovation of a national monument my was endangered. These years - when with all the difficulties involved. A also the decisions about the national museum cannot stay as a monument to its museum building were made - involved own history, as «a museum of a museum». the widespread diffusion of nationalism in And, as is also very well known, to make a Finland. modern museum in an old building is a The fact that the National Museum was most demanding task. born during a decisive phase of the nation­ building, has in later years made it a THE ROLE OF national monument in itself. And the fact A NATIONAL MUSEUM that, after a complicated planning history, the museum building was designed by the The term 'national museum' was occasio­ young architects Herman Gesellius, Armas nally mentioned during the latter part of RITVA WiiRE 142 the 19th century, denoting the future cen­ the needs of preservation, scientific re­ tral and state-owned museum of archaeo­ search, higher teaching and, in the second logy, history and ethnography. The place, contribute to the education of the museum was established in 1893 by com­ people. Neither the number of visitors nor bining various collections then existing in the quality of the museum visits, not to Helsinki. The Alexander University own­ mention enjoyment or entertainment were ed and housed the oldest and largest seriously considered. The founding of the numismatic, arhaeological, cultural histo­ museum and somewhat later the construc­ rical and ethnographic collections, even tion of the monumental museum building foreign ethnographic material collected by were great patriotic efforts at the turn of Finnish scientists and travellers from all the century. This would be sufficient for over the world, especially from Russia. more than half a century. The National The students' unions had their own, pri­ Museum was one of the necessities in a marily ethnographic collections, as well as young independent state, as it had been in the Archaeological Society founded in the autonomous Grand Duchy of Russia. 1870 and the State Archaeological It was needed as a treasury of the national Commission which had been established «regalia» and symbolical objects. Its mere in 1884. The museum was officially called existence showed that Finland also had a the State Museum of History, or some­ past and a history of her own: a matter times the State Museum of History and which had occasionally been discussed Ethnography until 1917 when Finland even in Finland during the 19th century. gained its independence. Since then the At the turn of the last century it was museum has been called the National especially important to show how Finland Museum of Finland. differed from Sweden as well as from The new museum founded in 1893 was Russia, and that the majority of the popu­ placed in the care of the State Archaeo­ lation, the Finnish-speaking people, whose logical Commission. This decision was to language belonged to the group of Fenno­ have great impact on the character of the Ugric (Uralic) languages, also had an indi­ museum in the coming years: the work at genous cultural heritage. In practice it was the museum has always been closely con­ not, however, easy to discern the roles of nected with the research and preservation the different language groups in the for­ of the immovable cultural heritage in mation of the history of the nation or her Finland. During its first sixty years the national characteristics. museum building was used both as a The more general functions of the public museum and as an office building museum were connected with the need of of a growing administration. Today the popular education and enlightment. It was National Museum, together with 13 necessary to show people the develop­ minor museums, functions as a separate ments of the past, so that their present department of the National Board of day, the troubled times of the late 19th Antiquities. century could be better understood. The In the early years the exhibitions of the museum should show people how their museum were arranged primarily to serve ancestors had survived in much more THE NATI ONA L MUSEUM OF FINLAND 1916-1996 demanding circumstances. By telling the partly covered with granite and soapstone. 143 common history of the nation the natio­ The roofs are covered with slates and cop­ nal museum should strenghten the natio­ perplates. nal feeling. A battle of styles had preceded the deci­ sion to announce a design competition for THE MUSEUM BUILDING the museum building. It concerned pri­ marily the principles of architecture, but The State Museum of History was located museum professionals were involved as the in various premises until the new museum debate also had reference to the methods building was ready to be furnished in the of display. beginning of the 191 Os. The main part of The earliest plans for the museum were the exhibitions were opened to the public made as early as 1889 and 1891, some in January 1916, the rest in the course of years before the State Museum of History the 1920s. The building was designed in was officially founded. The programme 1902-05 by the architects Gesellius, Lind­ for the spatial distribution was prepared gren and Saarinen, who had won the by the State Commission for Archaeology architectural competition in 1901-1902. and the planning was carried out by the The museum is located north of the National Board of Public Building. The 19th century city centre, in Tool<>, a dis­ first two plans were signed by the Director trict planned also at the turn of the centu­ of the Board, the architect Sebastian Gri­ ry and built in the first decades of this penberg, the third one in 1899 by the century.
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