nordic heritage museum

This past weekend, I visited the Nordic Heritage Museum. Though much of it is geared towards children, there are some very interesting parts.

Each Nordic country has its own room: Finnish, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic.
These featured handicrafts and outfits, Rosemaling designs, lace-making, spinning, etc. The Norwegian room had a small section on Ibsen, and there was also a larger section all about skis and skiing, and telemarking. Also a model sauna and fake bread. I loved the reindeer and the different sorts of shoes, especially the ones with the upcurved ends so that they would keep the shoe on the ski.

I learned some good things-- a lot of it covered immigration to the U.S., arrival in NYC, and what people of Nordic heritage did after moving to the pacific northwest; aside from fishing and logging, there was Nordstrom, whose first store was actually a shoe store, and also the origins of Swedish Hospital. The exhibits also followed ideas of national heritage after immigration.

Because it's the holiday season, the St. Lucia tradition is also featured in the Swedish room. I think that more might have been done with Norse mythology and to discuss different religions, but there were some small sections throughout, and lots of boats all over the place. I think they might have also done a bit more showing the wilderness and ideas about nature.

A small taste of it. My mom's mom was swedish, norwegian and french, but don't know much more about these roots.