Folk figures : a survey of Norwegian and Norwegian-American artifacts in the Upper Midwest

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Summary

This collection brings together, in digital form, a virtual exhibit of objects ranging from the 17th century through the 1930's that depict animals, humans, birds, fish, or supernatural figures. Th...

This collection brings together, in digital form, a virtual exhibit of objects ranging from the 17th century through the 1930's that depict animals, humans, birds, fish, or supernatural figures. These figures provide unique insight into the folk beliefs, social, religious, cultural, and political influences present in the lives of their crafters. Folk art constitutes the largest part of the survey but it is juxtaposed with a smaller grouping of professionally or commercially produced objects. These objects demonstrate characteristics of the national romantic movement, or the Viking revival period, which occurred around the turn of the 20th century. Unlike other Norwegian folk traditions such as chip carving and rosemaling, figure making tends to be an art of individual expression. However, these artifacts do suggest long held figure associations with certain household objects, such as the horse (a fertility symbol) serving as the handle on mangle boards, which were known to be given as betrothal gifts. The collection is an expanding project. Currently, there are over 80 objects and 200 images. Each entry includes a full image of the artifact, detail images, and is accompanied by basic artifact information.

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