Museet for Søfart, Elsinore, Denmark

In October 2013, the new building for the Museet for Søfart (Maritime Museum of Denmark) opened its doors in an old dry dock on the harbor front in Elsinore. The relocated museum was situated just four hundred feet from its former home in Kronborg Castle, where it had existed for almost one hundred years. The building itself was an architectural feat. Designed by renowned architect Bjarke Ingels and carved into the concrete walls of the old dry dock, the ambitious project was not without cost. A conglomerate of eleven Danish foundations, most of them within shipping, had put up an equivalent of some $50 million to make the museum a reality. And the investment paid off, as the new museum received rave reviews from international critics. At the opening ceremony on October 5, 2013, Danish minister of culture Marianne Jelved, flanked by the Danish queen and the CEO of the Danish Shipowners’ Association (DSA), expressed her hopes that the museum would underline how shipping and maritime activities “had always been a key part of Danish cultural heritage.” Not only was it a museum for the past, the minister argued, it was “a museum for the future that would help convey to present and future generations the relevance and possibilities of Danish shipping” (obtained from the Danish Ministry of Culture; my translation). As such, the new Maritime Museum of Denmark transcended the role as a cultural institution that disseminated “neutral” maritime history to the Danish public and foreign visitors. The museum not only contributed to the perception of Denmark as a maritime nation; it simultaneously inscribed an entire industry—shipping—into the larger national history and thus bolstered the legitimacy of the Danish maritime sector. And that was exactly what industry actors had planned and wished for—that the maritime museum would function as a showcase for Danish shipping and convey cultural resonance.

Physics · Conservation Techniques and Studies