Folk Costume use portrayed in modern Swedish Museums : A study of nationalism, romanticism and bias in modern exhibitions as a consequence of a subject's history.

Abstract: The purpose of this thesis has been to investigate the presented usage of folk costumes in three different folk costume exhibitions and what this presented usage may be a consequence of. The essay's issues are: What usage of the folk costume is currently represented within Swedish folk costume exhibits? What implications can be found in this representation? What are the museum's opinions on the representation and its implications? The Swedish folk costume is classified as both immaterial cultural heritage and intangible cultural heritage. This means that it is important to preserve both its immaterial and material qualities, one of these is the costumes use. By equating the modern way of viewing the costume as solely formal and occasion based clothing to festive folk costume and the historical view of the costume as dress to the everyday folk costume we can compare which way of perceiving the costume dominates. The exhibits studied are Dalarnas Museums, Blekinge Museums and Kulturen i Lunds folk costume exhibitions. The folk costume pieces in the exhibition were divided into categories and compared, then interviews were conducted with the museum workers to gain a further understanding of the comparative results. The survey shows that there is a gap in both the exhibitions and collections when it comes to everyday folk costumes. Consequently the modern way of viewing the folk costume is mostly present in the exhibition. Some causes may be collection bias through early collection methods, visitor interest and the museums role and responsibilities to society. Further research may be performing the same survey on a larger scale to further validate the thesis conclusions.