AY W R iT NO S in IN K M S PIC M EU OUR S U – M e:
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The Women’s Museum building as seen from the garden. The women’s museum is located in bohemian writer Dagny Juel’s childhood home. Photo: Mona Holm.
Restoring women’s role in history Throughout the ages, women have been overlooked as contributors to all aspects of society, from homemaking to arts and science. The idea that women should not be seen or heard despite being an essential part of history, and the resulting lack of women in history books and museums, is something Kvinnemuseet in Hedmark, Norway is doing its best to correct. By Alyssa Nilsen | Photos: Kvinnemuseet
Kvinnemuseet is the only women’s museum in Norway with national responsibility and considers itself a protest museum. Traditionally, museums and history books have neglected to display and showcase women’s contribution to society, instead highlighting warlords, kings and portraying history as an allmale accomplishment. Kongsvinger, the town in which the museum is located, is a military centre, and the town’s history and local pride is centred 56 | Issue 124 | May 2019
around the town’s characteristic fortress and the events that have taken place there. The idea of a museum focusing on women’s history, museum leader Mona Holm explains, was born in the ‘80s, when a new museum was founded in the city, with employees coming straight out of university. They brought along a completely different tradition and approach to viewing history to what was previously taught, in that history also happens quietly, below all the kings and warriors. The first exhibitions that were displayed in the new museum
were all about local women’s history. They then realised that the potential of something bigger and more comprehensive lay right there in front of them, and after travelling the country talking to experts and museums about women’s history, they decided to establish Norway’s first Women’s Museum in Kongsvinger. The Women’s Museum found its location in the beautiful childhood home of historically prominent writer and bohemian Dagny Juel. In 1995, the museum was officially opened by HM Sonja Queen of Norway, who has later revisited the museum and highlighted the importance of the museum and its agenda in official speeches to the nation. Having started out as an independent museum, it is now leading the network