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The public interest in polar expeditions around the turn of the century 1900 has been described in terms of an “Arctic Fever”. In the collections of Nordiska museet in Stockholm polar expedition souvenirs make up a genre of its own. They reflect a contemporary celebrity and fan culture as well as more personal relations and memories. The outspoken wish of the museum?s founder Artur Hazelius was to represent both famous Swedish and men and women in the collections. As the museum?s name also reflects there was also an initial ambition of a larger Scandinavian frame. Still, in several ways these souvenirs reflect both gendered and nationalistic tendencies.
In this dialogue a handful of souvenirs exemplify that both tragic failures and successes, celebrated and forgotten expeditions have found their ways into museum collections. How can souvenirs infused with contemporary themes of masculine heroism and nationalistic pride be approached today? In this talk, Lotten Gustafsson Reinius (Halwyl professor at Nordiska museet and Stockholm University) and Karin Dern (curator at Nordiska museet, department of Cultural History) discuss their curation in program activities and display, arguing that they open for re-narration and investigation of agencies and themes, left in shadow in the era of “grand polar pioneers”.