Open-air museum

An open-air museum (also frequently open air museum) is a type of museum that exhibits collections of buildings and artifacts out-of-doors. They are also frequently known as museums of buildings or folk museums.

The concept of an open-air museum originated in Scandinavia in the late 19th century and spread widely. A comprehensive history of the open-air museum as idea and institution can be found in Swedish museologist Sten Rentzhog's 2007 book Open Air Museums: The History and Future of a Visionary Idea.

Living history museums, including living farm museums and living museums, are a type of open-air museum where costumed interpreters portray period life in an earlier era. The interpreters act as if they are really living in a different time and place, such as the Colonial era, and perform everyday household tasks, crafts and occupations. The goal is to demonstrate older lifestyles and pursuits to modern audiences. Household tasks might include cooking on an open hearth, churning butter, spinning wool and weaving, and farming without modern equipment. Many living museums feature traditional craftsmen at work, such as a blacksmith, pewtersmith, silversmith, weaver, tanner, armorer, cooper, potter, miller, sawyer, cabinet-maker, woodcarver, printer, doctor and general store keeper.

Open air is “The unconfined atmosphere…outside buildings…”. In the loosest sense, an open-air museum is any institution which includes one or more buildings in its collections, including farm museums, historic house museums, and archaeological open-air museums. Mostly the term open-air museum is applied to museums which specialize in the collection and re-erection of multiple, old, buildings at large outdoor sites, usually in settings of re-created landscapes of the past and often include living history. Most of them may therefore justly be described as building museums. European open-air museums tended to be located originally in regions where wooden architecture prevailed, as wooden structures may be trans-located without substantial loss of authenticity.

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