The University Museum through 200 years
Welcome to the University Museum's Spectacular Anniversary Exhibition!
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2025 marks the bicentennary for Wilhelm Frimann Koren Christie's call for contributions to establish a new cultural and scientific center in Western Norway – Bergens Museum.
In the course of two centuries, the Museum has grown from the visionary layman's initiative into a prestigious research institution, and in 1946, the University of Bergen sprung from the Museum’s scientific community. Today, Bergen Museum is known as the University Museum of Bergen, an integral part of the University of Bergen.
Already in Christie's invitation it is made clear that the Museum’s mission from the very beginning was intended to entail documenting, collecting, and preserving Western Norway’s cultural history and natural world; establishing scientific research collections for the benefit of visiting scholars; and to contribute to create new knowledge through the Museum's own research and publications.
Another goal of equal importance was that of disseminating insight and knowledge of cultural and natural history to the benefit of the people of the nation. This goal reflects a deep understanding of how the greatest impact of science and research comes through engagement with society:
Only knowledge that is shared has value.
Today, the University Museum manages nearly five million objects. Throughout its 200-year history, the Museum has witnessed every major societal change, technological development, scientific paradigm shift and changing worldviews of the Modern Era.
As part of the Bicentennary Celebrations, the Museum’s 200 employees have contributed to tell our story through a selection of objects, artefacts, questions, perspectives and knowledge collected and preserved on behalf of the people through two centuries. This way, we hope to offer a unique insight into the Museum’s history, and to show how the Museum, the University, and society continuously influence and shape one another, both in the past and the present, and doubtlessly also in the years to come.
Welcome to Our Museum, where knowledge lights the way to the future.