ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the identity of the living historical farm as an emergent concept and as a contexted enactment in time and space. It suggests that it has a profound and rich message for the present, which differentiates it from other kinds of museums. Association for Living Historical Farms and Agricultural Museums (ALHFAM), and speakers at its first annual meetings reflected on the intersection between the then-new field of living history and living historical farms. Folklorists and museum people with training in folk cultural studies have insisted on the reconstruction of the ethical and aesthetic context of farm activities and on fidelity to the people who once lived and worked on the farms being recreated. In 1897, aiming to show the development of the farmstead from antiquity to the present day, Bernard Olsen founded Frilandsmuseet near Copenhagen as the open-air component to the Dansk Folkemuseum.
