ABSTRACT
In 1880 the Scandinavian ethnographic collection was reorganized and given a new name: Nordiska museet. The idea of a Nordic model for nation and welfare state-building has periodically gained in international popularity since the 1930s. In the domain of cultural policy, the idea of a distinct Nordic model was broadly accepted in the 1970s. Scandinavia's principal contribution to modern international museum history is its pioneering role in folk culture museums in general, and in the open-air folk culture museum in particular. Artur Hazelius's commitment to Scandinavianist ideas was expressed in his passionate engagement in Scandinavianist language politics and orthographical reforms. During the Second World War, Skansen became an arena for national mobilization, large-scale patriotic displays and military defence exhibitions, in close collaboration with the royal family, leading politicians, the Swedish army and many voluntary defence organizations.
