Found ship boy shoes. From the National Naval Museum's exhibition “The Navy 500 years”. Photo: Mikael Dunker, the National Naval Museum/SMTM.
Museums are places where history might be formed, forgotten or highlighted. What do museums want their visitors remember – and forget – about the Swedish navy and its history? This subproject studies how the sailing Swedish navy has been described and presented in and around exhibitions.
In recent years the research scope of naval history has been widened. From being dominated by the history of naval warfare and battles, research now includes other aspects of the navy’s activities, such as social history and how the navy has been presented and received during different times. Might these trends be traced in the museums’ presentations of Swedish naval history? Why have certain objects and events been chosen to epitomize the Swedish sailing navy?z
This subproject examines the interplay of objects, texts and other techniques used in current exhibitions, as well as the documentation of long-lasting exhibitions in museum archives.
Another ambition is to analyze how museum collections and exhibitions of the sailing navy have been interpreted in museum yearbooks, in specialist journals and other publications. The scope of the study will include but not be limited to the Naval Museum in Karlskrona and the Maritime Museum in Stockholm.
The subproject is part of the Maritime heritage module of the programme.
The last phase in the ship's life-cycle? The Swedish sailing navy as cultural heritage in museums 1945-2020
Project leader
Andreas Linderoth, historian, The National Maritime and Transport Museums
E-mail: Andreas.linderoth@smtm.se