Folklife and museum practice: : an intertwined history and emerging convergences (American folklore society presidential address, October 2011)

Folklore and museums have had a long and intertwined history. Among those responsible for the founding of the American Folklore Society (AFS) in 1888 were museum-based anthropologists, curators, and collection managers. Since that time, folklorists have worked in and with museums in a variety of ways — work that has reflected intellectual and political shifts in folklore studies as well as changes in museum practice. As cultural heritage work in the twenty-first century seeks simultaneously to document, interpret, present, preserve, and protect tangible and intangible heritage while at the same time address the needs of civil society, the logical interfaces between folklore and museum work have increased. The first development was the emergence and growth of open-air museums and living history programming. In 1872, Swedish teacher, scholar, and folklorist Artur Hazelius established a museum in Stockholm for Swedish ethnography, now called Nordiska museet, to house the peasant life materials he bought or managed to get donated from all over Sweden and the other Nordic countries.