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University Museum of Bergen

The Christie Room

Bergens Museum was founded in 1825 on the initiative of Wilhelm Frimann Koren Christie (1778-1849), President of the Norwegian Parliament and county governor of Hordaland, county court judge, and customs inspector in Bergen.

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Christie had clear and impressive visions of what his intentions were regarding what a museum could do to support the building of a national identity, which increasingly was at the centre of attention after 1814. But Christie was not only a theorist, he was also practically inclined and an all-round museum enthusiast. He was a keen collector of rocks, wooden objects, plants, and animals. He stuffed birds and preserved fishes and snails in alcohol. In addition to this he also collected samples of dialects and riddles.

 

These and many other aspects of the many-sided personality of Christie are shown in the newly furnished Christie Room. The Room is part of the centenary celebration of Norway’s separation from the union with Sweden in 1905. Associate Professor Kari Gaarder Losnedahl is the professional responsible for the interior decoration, in co-operation with exhibition architect, Anne Aspen. The room is a part of the Museum’s permanent exhibitions.

 

In 1868, the writer, adherent of New Norwegian, and free church minister, Kristofer Nagel Janson (1841-1917) published Chistie’s riddle collection under the title Norska gaator. Initially, there were 213 riddles in the collection, but the number was reduced to 122. The main reason for this, Janson wrote, was "that some were too inappropriate to be printed - others were quite Danish..." says Gaarder Losnedahl.

 

In the Christie Room, located on the second floor of The Cultural History Collections fine furniture from the first part of the 1800s are shown, and also a number of small things belonging to Christie: an ink stand, a pair of binoculars, a table clock, a medal collection, and a nightcap of linen with white work and salmon-coloured silk lining. On display are also a spinning wheel, his mother’s bridal shoes, the folding cot he used when travelling, his field dispensary where camphorated oils and other medication from the 1840s still remain on some of the bottles and a large number of original documents on loan from the University Library.

 

- These documents demonstrate in full the broad scope of Christie’s life and work; as a politician, an office-holder, and an administrator. This shows his invaluable contribution in the establishing and building of Bergens Museum, says Kari Gaarder Losnedahl.