The National Museum of Iceland

The role of the museum is to increase and relay knowledge of Icelandic cultural heritage, from the nation´s earliest settlement through to the modern day.

At the National Museum the present meets the past. It is healthy for the Icelandic people to ask who they are, where they are going and what they want to represent. What can they learn from past generations?

The National Museum displays objects that provide insight into Icelandic cultural history - displays that encourage visitors to dwell on the past, present and future. The museum aims to nurture knowlede and innovation while maintaining a wide perspective and sense of community.

History and Role of the National Museum of Iceland
The National Museum was established on 24th of February 1863. Up until that time Icelandic museum pieces had been kept in Danish collections. Jón Árnason librarian was made curator of the Icelandic collection. Several months later he was given permission to hire another curator; Sigurður Guðmundsson 'the painter,' who was the first to advocate the establishment of an antiquarian collection in Iceland.

The museum was called the Antiquarian Collection up until 1911 when the name was changed to the National Museum of Iceland. During the first decades it was housed in several attics in Reykjavík - in the Cathedral, House of Corrections, Parliament and National Bank - and finally the attic of the National Library building on Hverfisgata (now the Culture House) where it remained for four decades. When the Republic was formed in 1944, Parliament decided to give the nation a museum at Suðurgata, into which the collections were moved in 1950. Six decades later it has been entirely refurbished to meet present standards and requirements.

The role of the National Museum is varied, reflecting its legal obligation as national centre for the preservation and management of cultural heritage, cultural reaearch programmes and promulgation of knowledge and information which relates to the cultural heritage of the nation.

Archaeology and archaeological survey
Archaeological research has always played an important role in the work of the Museum. Until 2001, when the Archaeological Heritage Agency was formed, it also held the adminstrative responsiblity for archaeological sites in Iceland. All archaeological finds belong to the state, according to law, and are supposed to be delivered to the National Museum, for conservation and keeping.

In recent years many important archaeological projects have been carried out by the National Museum, including large rescue excavations on sites such as Stóraborg farm mound, on the south coast of Iceland, Bessastaðir farm mound at the presidential residence, Hofsstaðir in Garðabær and at Keldur at Rangárvellir. Also research excavations at Eiríksstaðir in Haukadalur and a large multidiciplinary research project in Reykholt in Borgarfjörður in cooperation with Snorrastofa in Reykholt, the Science Institute University of Iceland, the Icelandic Institute of Natural History, the University of Iceland History Insititute, and the Icelandic Placenames Institute.

The National Museum also participates in many research projects linked to sites such as Þingvellir, Hólar, Gásir, Skriðuklaustur and Skálholt, in collaboration for example with Hólar College, the Skagafjörður Folk Museum, the Institute of Archaeology and the Akureyri Museum. The National Museum was the pioneer in planning and carrying out archaeological field survey in Iceland, starting in 1980. The result of these projects can be seen in the exhibition Encounters, (January 31th 2009 - September 15th 2010).

The National Museum was the leading body in preparing for Þingvellir to be listed on the UNESCO World Heritage list.

Research and Conservation
Cataloguing, conservation and research all form an important basis for the preservation of cultural material. Cataloguing is carried out on a specially designed cultural database named ‘Sarpur’. It is used to record artifacts, pictures, archaeological sites, historic buildings, place names and cultural history, and is used by museums and institutions around the country.

The conservation of museum artifacts in the form of repair and stabilisation is an important part of the preservation process. Artifacts need to be cleaned, repaired and conserved for the future.

The National Museum also carries out extensive research on its heritage collections. These collections are made up of a wide array of objects that shed light on Iceland´s cultural history; archaeological artifacts, church paraphernalia, art objects, practical everyday objects, historic buildings, objects related to economy and productions, photographs, audio recordings and written sources that relate to cultural practices.

The research projects conducted by the museum are both multi-disciplinary and subject-specific and fall within the spheres of archaeology, art history, history, cultural ethnology and architectural history. It is the museum´s policy to conduct extensive research programmes that focus on cultural heritage, both within the museum and in collaboration with other research institutions.

Historic Buildings Collection
The National Museum´s experts supervise houses and other buildings in the ownership and keeping of the National Museum of Iceland. The museum began its campaign for the preservation of old buildings in the early 20th century; the first building to be listed, in 1930, was the chapel at Núpsstaður, south Iceland, which had been used for some years as a storage shed.

The Historic Buildings Collection comprises over forty different edifices, which vary greatly in scale and are located all over the country. They include all of Iceland´s principal turf houses and all the turf churches preserved in their original form, three in the north and two in Skaftafellssýsla in the south-east. Iceland has few buildings constructed of stone that date back more than a century; four of these are in the Historic Buildings Collection, three in the east, and one, Nesstofa (1761-63), on Seltjarnarnes adjacent to Reykjavík. The collection also includes a range of timber buildings, and wooden churches of several different types, along with Iceland´s oldest belfry, at Möðruvellir in Eyjafjörður in the north. The colleciton also includes the only extant windmill in Iceland, on the island of Vigur in the West Fjords. The National Museum publishes reports and other literature on its research and other subjects.

The National Museum Collection of Photographs and Prints
Iceland´s largest public collection of images is preserved by the National Museum. The pictures are of many kinds: drawings, watercolours, prints, graphic prints and paintings, but principally photographs in various forms. A total of about 4 million photographs are preserved in the collection.

The bulk of the National Museum´s photographic collection consists of collections of plates and films taken by individual photographers. The majority are portraits. The collection contains about 600 thousand plates and 650 thousand negatives, in 99 collections by individual photographers, both professional and amateur, from the period 1866-1993. The majority date from the period 1890-1960. The collection also contains about 350 thousand pictures in various specialized collections, such as the Portrait Collection, Photograpic and Print Collection, Postcard Collection, and photographic archives from the Federation of Icelandic Cooperative Societies, the daily Morgunblaðið newspaper and the RÚV national broadcasting company.

The museum´s experts carry out research relating to its collections, and Icelandic photographic history in general, organize exhibitions at the museum and publish books on photography. The museum has a photographic studio which processes pictures for the museum and makes copies for clients. Photographs are loaned for a fee to publishers, newspapers and film makers, and copies of photographs can be made to order for the general public.

Museum Education
The National Museum organizes educational events and material for children an adults alike. Each visit to the museum is intended to be educational and fun for all.

Guided tours are on offer, but organized visits from schools make up the core of the educational work carried out at the museum. Preschools, elementary schools and secondary schools are offered varied educational programmes to suit their needs. Schools are given the option to borrow ‘Museum Boxes’ containing artifacts and information on textile pruduction, food customs, past times and games.

The museum also has two rooms titled 'Hands On' where visitors can be fitted with costumes and weaponry, play games and solve puzzles.

Icelandic Folk Customs
Research on Icelandic folk customs is carried out at the National Museum. Initially the focus was on gathering information on different aspects of the old agrarian society, such as working methods and the use of various traditional tools and utensils. In the early 1980s work began on gathering information on urban life, and since then modern customs have also been studied.

The ethnology archive contains over 15,000 such accounts, in addition to a number of specialized collections. The resources contain information derived from thousands of people on such subjects as daily life, working methods, domestic animals, music, clothing, diet, home life, leisure activities, transport, religious practice, and much more. About 80% of these accounts are available on computer through a specialized search facility.

The museum´s ethnology archive is open to the general public.

The Library, Archives and Information Services
The Museum library and archives are housed at Setberg, Suðurgata 41, Reykjavík. This is a modern research library of material relating to archaeology, cultural history, ethnology, religious sources, textile studies, conservation, art history, crafts and architecture.
The library´s holdings, of about 22,000 volumes of books, magazines, videos, and CD, are catalogued in GEGNIR, the national computer catalogue system, since 1992.

The library provides an information service and general assistance to guests. Books may be consulted in the reading room. They are normally loaned only to the museum scholars and its staff, but the library welcomes all visitors as well.

The Library is open Monday to Friday 13-16. It closes for a month in summer (in July).