The Nordic Museum is a museum of Swedish cultural history, located on Djurgården island, within easy walking distance of the Vasa Museum. As we’d just visited the Vasa Museum, our walk to the Nordic Museum didn’t take long, though we took the time to stop for some fine dining along the way.

The Nordic Museum has a collection of 1.5 million items, dating from the 16th Century through the present day. The museum was founded in 1873 (when it was called the Scandinavian Ethnographic Collection; it received its present name in 1880) by a man named Artur Hazelius, who was interested in the preservation of Swedish folk culture, which he perceived to be under threat by 19th Century modernization and industrialization. Hazelius bought or received donations of many culturally historic items, like furniture, clothing and toys, from all over Sweden. Initially he focused on items from peasant culture, but the collection grew to include items from middle class and urban lifestyles as well. Hazelius sought government funding for his efforts and was denied at first, but by 1891 the Riksdag (Swedish Parliament) had relented, and began to supply some working capital. The present museum building was built between 1888 and 1907, at first intended for the Stockholm Exposition of 1897. By the time of the Exposition, the building was unfortunately only half completed, but by 1907, the Nordic Museum was more than ready to occupy its vast exhibition space.

On entering the museum, one is confronted by a gigantic statue of Gustav I Vasa, the first king of an independent Sweden. The statue was carved in oak by Carl Milles and his wife Olga. Some of the wood in the statue’s forehead is said to have come from a tree planted by Gustav Vasa himself. Gustav Vasa ruled in the 16th Century, apparently with an iron hand. The inscription on the statue, WARER SVENSKE, translates roughly as “Be ye Swedish!”

The interior of the museum is a long (413 foot) open space, three floors high and skylighted, centered on the Vasa statue. Exhibit rooms are entered from the open space, not unlike a shopping mall.

Most of the items in the museum are handmade, and can be viewed as being in a number of craftsy categories. First, there are items that are just useful for day-to-day life (though with a certain amount of Swedish style):

Next, here are some decorative items which can be hung on walls:

There is a fair amount of decorative furniture in the museum also:



Also on display are different types of day-to-day clothing, for different seasons and different eras:


Way back before Toys R Us, children still required things to play with, and these were made by hand as well:


For formal occasions, people wore special clothing, heavily accessorized. For weddings, brides traditionally wore bridal crowns, of which there are several on display.




Part of the museum is devoted to domestic scenes, such as table settings:




Besides the building being attractive in itself, there are some nice views available from parts of the building.

Having had enough museums for one day, but still wanting to see more of Stockholm, we noticed tour boats motoring around in the harbor, and thought this looked like a good idea. So we left Djurgården island and walked off along the waterfront, searching for a home port of one of these vessels.