ABSTRACT
Authenticity and inauthenticity – and who gets to decide which is which – profoundly shapes collections and heritage sites across America. Peaking in number at the nation’s Bicentennial, many local organizations founded to accept and interpret objects as appropriate markers of local memory are now in decline. But in Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin that community pride is thriving in a brand new historical museum. Drawing from its opening exhibition, this material culture project uses several centuries of objects to trace long-term historical patterns of identity making, commemoration, and commercialization. Studying a small rural town in the upper Midwest demonstrates how Norwegian men and women used and ornamented everyday household objects to perform their real, perceived, or chosen ethnic identity. A tradition of effusive carving and painting of surfaces marked regional Norwegian craftsmanship. Such a cultural preference is marked in the possessions brought by early immigrants and their replication and change through later generations. Indeed, the wish to be more ethnically grounded through household goods led to a twentieth-century artistic efflorescence that built upon perceived local traditions. Ultimately, local business interests would market that Norwegian identity to create a flourishing tourist destination, “The World’s Largest Trollway.”
