Desire to Collect, Desire to Know

The rural local history museums - the community changes, the collections remain

Authors

• Johanna Lehto-Vahtera, MA, Director of Museum Naantali Museum
• Riikka Kajula

Keywords:

local history museums, museology, museography, museums objects

Abstract

'Museum' is a concept that includes many different forms of materialisation and, on the other hand, more abstract trends, regarding local patriotism, identity, desire to collect as well as various conceptions of the past. lt is a phenomenon that manifests itself as various kinds of museums or sirnilar places. While studying the museum phenomenon, we encounter museumising processes of various levels, different historical phases of museums as well as many aspects regarding value
judgements on cultural heritage. The first and foremost function of museums is to preserve, which leads to the accumulation of the collections under the patronage of the corporeal museum. The museum institution is divided into art museums and museums of natural history and cultural history. The latter includes also the hundreds of local history museums in their various forms.