Netherlands Open Air Museum

Netherlands Open Air Museum

Nederlands Openluchtmuseum
Houses from the Zaan region
Location in Gelderland in the Netherlands
Established	1912 (1912)
Location	Schelmseweg 89 Arnhem, Netherlands
Coordinates	52°0′38″N 5°54′37″E
Type	Open-air museum
Visitors	509,000 (2013) Ranking 10th nationally (2013)
Director	Pieter-Matthijs Gijsbers
President	Jeroen van der Veer
Website	openluchtmuseum.nl/en

The Netherlands Open Air Museum (Template:Lang-nl) is a open-air museum located in Arnhem with antique houses, farms and factories from different parts of the Netherlands. It is a national museum focusing on the culture associated with the everyday lives of ordinary people. This will be linked to key aspects of Dutch history, including the Dutch East India Company and Michiel de Ruyter, as well as the First World War, slavery and child labour. The park was established on 24 April 1912 and open to the public from July 1918, over the last century the Netherlands Open Air Museum has grown to become one of the country's most visited museums. Annually, the museum has more than 555,000 visitors.

The Museum

The park is about 44 hectares in area and includes buildings from various places and historical periods. There are around forty historic buildings that you can enter and see from the inside and there is also a historic tram that can transport you through the park. Inside the historic houses and farms there might be employees or volunteers available that can tell you more about the house and its history. The museum also has a collection of historical clothing and jewellery. New indoor exhibition space was built in 1999–2000. The museum won the European Museum of the Year Award in 2005.

On site at the museum there are re-enactors demonstrating the old way of life. Among these demonstrations are paper production, linseed production, and beer brewing.

The heritage tram line opened in the museum in 1996. The line is 1750 m long, standard gauge. It has classic electric trams from Amsterdam, Arnhem, Rotterdam, and The Hague. The pride of the museum's line is a replica of an Arnhem tram from 1929, the GETA 76, which was constructed by the museum.

Research

Some research is done on-site at the Open Air Museum for the dating and conservation of materials acquired. The Multimedia Library of the museum contains pictures, slides, diagrams, videos, and audio recordings documenting Dutch folk life. They also work in tandem with the Foundation for Historical Farm Research (SHBO), the Working Party for Farmyards Foundation (SWB), and the Centre for Documentation and Information on Regional Dress (SDI) in their research on folk culture.

Gallery

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  Paper mill
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  Tramway
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  German border crossing from WWI, part of the Wire of Death
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  Farmhouse
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  Two Amsterdam houses in the Arnhem Open Air Museum
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  Houses from the Zaan region

References

• Wagemakers, Ton. Nederlands Openluchtmuseum, Arnem. Trans. WTS, World Translation Services, Zeist. Nederlands Openluchtmuseum, 2000.
• History. Nederlands Openluchtmuseum. Retrieved on 2008-04-27.
• Mission. Nederlands Openluchtmuseum. Retrieved on 2008-04-27.

External links

• Museum website (in Dutch)
• Museum website (in English)
• Mecanoo Architecten information