ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the transformations of national museums in Europe in the twentieth century following the First World War. It argues that national museums are representations of a universal history of civilization and as such shifted to represent particular community identities during the twentieth century. The classical museums of civilization, which claims a position for their states in a universal European civilization, began to highlight particularities and differences allegedly associated with their nations. 'Framing national identity in museums through art, history and ethnography' and 'New museums of ethnography', examines the disciplinary focus that museums devoted to displaying national identities between the two world wars. European state elites after 1918 began to justify independence, expansion or new borders as a logical, sometimes even necessary, outcome of historical processes, social and cultural development, and geographical and natural circumstances. Finnish nationalism was less aggressive towards its large neighbour and rather emphasized its inherent place in the common European history.
