Description
Before it became the Nordic Heritage Museum in 1980, the red brick building was originally the Daniel Webster Elementary School from 1907 to 1979, when low student enrollment led to its closure. Fundraising and architecture plans are underway for a new building in downtown Ballard.
The museum's mission is to share "Nordic culture with people of all ages and backgrounds by exhibiting art and objects, preserving collections, providing educational and cultural experiences, and serving as a community gathering place." The founder and long-time director Marianne Forssblad retired in 2007. Erik Nelson followed her as executive director and Janet Rauscher became chief curator in 2008.
The museum publishes NHM Historical Journal on a quarterly basis. It also maintains a blog about restoring the Nordic Spirit, a boat in the museum's collection.
The Nordic Heritage Museum contains two libraries. The Walter Johnson Memorial Library was founded in 1980. As of 2011 it held 15500 books. It specializes in books published in Danish, Finnish, Icelandic, Norwegian, and Swedish. Its special collection includes the Gordon Tracie Music Library and the Vanishing Generations Oral History Project. The Gordon Ekvall Tracie Music Library was founded in 1995. As of 2011 it contained 3000 audio/visual materials, 4000 music scores, 2500 books, and 40 periodical subscriptions. It focuses on folk customs, traditional dance, traditional music, folk art, and folk attire for Nordic cultures. Its special collections include the Gordon Ekvall Tracie History Collection, the Nordiska Folkdancers Collection, and the Skandia Folkdance Society Collection.
Read more about this topic: Nordic Heritage Museum
Famous quotes containing the word description:
“It [Egypt] has more wonders in it than any other country in the world and provides more works that defy description than any other place.”
—Herodotus (c. 484–424 B.C.)
“A sound mind in a sound body, is a short, but full description of a happy state in this World: he that has these two, has little more to wish for; and he that wants either of them, will be little the better for anything else.”
—John Locke (1632–1704)
“The next Augustan age will dawn on the other side of the Atlantic. There will, perhaps, be a Thucydides at Boston, a Xenophon at New York, and, in time, a Virgil at Mexico, and a Newton at Peru. At last, some curious traveller from Lima will visit England and give a description of the ruins of St. Paul’s, like the editions of Balbec and Palmyra.”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)