A PLEA FOR A BRITISH FOLK-MUSEUM. 



By W. RUSKIN BUTTERFIELD. 



A proposal has recently been made to utilise the 

 Crystal Palace and grounds for a National Folk- 

 Museum on the lines of the famous Nordiska 

 Museet at Stockholm, with its open-air department 

 of Skansen. 



The last two decades have witnessed the forma- 

 tion of folk-museums in various parts of Europe, 

 and especially in the Scandinavian countries. In 

 addition to the one mentioned at Stockholm, Sweden 

 possesses others at Lund, and at Bunge in the island 

 of Gotland ; in Norway similar institutions have 

 been established at Christiania, Lillehammer, 

 Elverum, and Hamar ; and in Denmark at Copen- 

 hagen. Their raison d'etre is to illustrate in a 

 concrete manner the evolution of national culture 

 and characteristics ; to trace the modes of life of the 

 people in times past and to preserve represen- 

 tative examples of national buildings, domestic and 

 other appliances, costumes, personal ornaments — 

 in short, to bring together in one locality all such 

 objects as best serve to reconstruct the conditions 

 of life in their respective countries from remotest 

 times. 



In no country is a national folk-museum so neces- 

 sary as in England, because in no other country is 

 there such a dearth of distinctively national objects, 

 and also because no other country has outgrown its 

 past so rapidly and so completely in regard to in- 

 digenous customs, amusements, and modes of life 

 generally. What an unalluring sight is presented, 

 for instance, by the interiors of the smaller homes of 

 the land at the present time. The furniture, pottery, 

 and other objects are almost all of the factory type. 

 Here and there, it is true, one does find an old 

 corner cupboard, a lace christening cap, or a piece of 

 slip-ware made at some forgotten local pottery and 

 containing perhaps a presentation inscription com- 

 memorating a wedding or a betrothal ; but these old 

 folk-objects are few and far between. During the 

 Victorian period especially there existed a profound 

 apathy, if not antipathy, for what was deemed old- 

 fashioned. Mural paintings were hidden behind 

 coats of lime-wash, oak-panelling was torn from 

 the walls, and immemorial seasonal customs in town 

 and village alike dwindled to their final abandon- 

 ment. No less striking were the changes wrought 

 by the concentration of industries and by increased 

 facilities for transport. Home industries, such as 

 weaving and lace-making, and local crafts, like those 

 of the potter and the basket-maker, were diverted 

 from the villages to factories in the larger centres 

 of population. A national folk-museum would 

 take account of these several changes and preserve 

 the links between the past and the present. 



The British Museum at Bloomsbury and the 

 Victoria and Albert Museum at South Kensington 

 are national in scarcely any other sense than that 

 they are State institutions. The splendid collections 

 in the former tell us as much, if not indeed more, 

 about the ancient Egyptians and Greeks than about 

 our own peoples and our own land. The equally 

 fine collections at South Kensington have been 

 accumulated mainly for the special purpose of 

 providing objects, irrespective of their place of 

 origin, to serve as standards in the industrial and 

 fine arts. Moreover, the methods of exhibition in 

 these great museums are only partly in keeping with 

 the spirit of folk-museums. Instead of displaying 

 collections in formal series in standardised glass 

 cases, the folk-museums assemble their objects so far 

 as possible in related groups. But the great failing 

 of the museums in question lies in their remoteness 

 from the realities of every-day life. They restrict 

 themselves too rigidly to things which are merely 

 rare or precious, or which attain a certain artistic 

 merit. They pay little or no concern to the ordinary 

 man and woman. In other words, they touch the 

 circle of national life only at the glowing centre 

 instead of reaching to the wide periphery. 



Now let us turn to the proposed scheme and see, 

 so far as is possible in a bare outline, what it is 

 intended to accomplish. Taking the Crystal Palace 

 grounds first, it is proposed to establish therein an 

 open-air museum. Of all the survivals from former 

 times, none surpass in interest the people's homes. 

 The first duty, therefore, of the open-air museum 

 would be to secure ancient houses bearing in a 

 sufficiently well-marked manner features distinctive 

 of some period or locality. The buildings would be 

 taken down and re-erected in the grounds with 

 scrupulous regard to their original form. It is not 

 contemplated, it need hardly be said, to ransack the 

 English countryside and tear buildings from their 

 time-honoured sites, where there is no danger of 

 their demolition or serious mutilation, but to rescue 

 here and there worthy and typical buildings in 

 imminent danger of destruction. After their 

 re-erection the houses will be provided with con- 

 temporary furniture and all appropriate appliances, 

 the idea being to show them exactly as they 

 appeared to the people of the time. Some of the 

 houses might have associated with them old English 

 gardens, with a columbarium, a well-house, a sun- 

 dial, and clipped yews. Consider how fascinating 

 such sights would be, not only to ourselves, but 

 also to visitors from amongst our kinsmen in the 

 dominions beyond the seas. 



In some cases, instead of removing whole houses, 



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