Places

Småland’s Flax Centre

Smålands Lincentrum (Småland’s Flax Centre) works to safeguard knowledge about the cultivation and use of flax. The aim is to collect and disseminate knowledge about flax and its use in Småland throughout the ages, to maintain a living tradition of high cultural value. This way, the society facilitates meaningful employment and good environmental management as well as expanding knowledge about the environmentally friendly flax. Flax fibers allow for locally produced clothing and other textiles, as well as many other uses. Since its foundation in 1994, the base for the society’s activities as been the craft house Sländan, adjacent to Dädesjö folk museum.

The craft house contains an exhibition about flax and textiles and in the adjoining workshop both old and new machinery used for threshing, retting and dressing flax can be found. There are also several different spinning wheels. Every year, a small field with different types of flax is grown outside the buildings. Over the years, the society has organised spinning parties and competitions, courses and seminars about flax, its cultivation and preparation, study trips, spinning courses as well as demonstrations and exhibitions around the use of flax and textile craft.

Text by Stephanie Carleklev

Dädesjö old parsonage

Dädesjö old parsonage is part of a unique church and parsonage environment in Småland. The building dates back to the 18th century, but parts of it are probably older, and was close to being demolished in the 1920s. The idea then was to build a new, modern parsonage. With the help of both locals and others, the local folk museum managed to save the main and surrounding buildings and now cares for the property. Today, the whole area is listed.

The folk museum contains a well-preserved parsonage kitchen, larger and smaller halls of assembly and a couple of museum rooms housing a collection of textiles, a school exhibition and an exhibition about the window glass making in Ramnåsa. The unique textile collection contains a large number of everyday textiles. Apart from the physical representation of these clothes, they, together with many architectonical details, reflect an attitude of restraint, ingenuity and care.

Text by Stephanie Carleklev 

The Archive Society of Emmaboda

(Re-)learning the Archive talks to Pähr Gustavsson, one of the initiators behind Emmabodabygdens Arkivförening (The Archive Society of Emmaboda) which originally went by the name of Vissefjärdabygdens Arkivförening (the Archive Society of Vissefjärda). He is still very much involved in the archive’s activities.

Can you tell us a bit more about the background behind the Archive Society?
The society was founded in 1983 as the project I Glasriket – Människan, miljön, framtiden (In the Kingdom of Crystal – Humans, Environment, Future) came to an end and we wanted to create something more permanent. There were some old premises in Vissefjärda that we turned into a society archive. From that we have slowly grown, increased our activites and improved our premises. Among other things our members came together to finance mobile archive shelving. In 2006 we got better digital and visual archives.

We keep accumulating more archives. The project Kris i repris (Rerunning crisis) had collected older note sheets from music societies. The eldest ones were notes from Lessebo from the late 19^th century. When Torsten Jansson bought the glassworks he wanted to sell the collections at auction. The municipality then came in and bought them. All the items ended up at The Glass Factory, but there were many archives around. We came to an agreement with Emmaboda municipality that we would take care of these archives. There are pictures, accounts, staff lists, sketches. And there are films, among others a film about Boda from the 1960s which must have been shown on American TV.

Voluntary work has been crucial in building the archive. The material we received from Kosta weighed 17 tons. It was transported to the archive by volunteers from the local folk museum, among others. Seventeen people worked without any pay because they thought it was important to safeguard the material.

The craft museum in Gullabo

In Gullabo one can visit the amazing craft museum run by Henning Persson. Gullabo has a long history of craft. Twenty or thirty years ago there would be busloads of people coming to Gullabo for the craft according to Henning Persson. Twice a year, in summer and winter, there was a large craft fair. In July 2000 the largest wooden spoon in the world was unveiled at the fair. It was made by local craftspeople and is now in the Guinness Book of World Records. The spoon can be seen as you drive into Gullabo.

Henning Persson is a trained country craftsman and was a crafts teacher for 32 years. For many years he ran Gullabo’s school of wood carving where young people came to learn the craft. On six different occasions he went to areas in the US where many Swedes had historically settled, to share his knowledge. The many items he kept receiving from crafts people became the starting point for the craft museum. Today these objects form the core of the museum’s rich, lively and varied collection.

Bergdala museum of glass technology

Bergdala museum of glass technology displays a technical and embodied history of design, told through the equipment used in early mass production and decoration of glass. (Re-)learning the Archive met with Kerstin Fröberg and Björn Zethræus who manage and showcase the museum’s collection.

Tell us about Bergdala museum of glass technology?
The whole thing started when the society Glas i Hovmantorp (Glass in Hovmantorp) managed to track down Kosta glassworks’ old pantograph. In 2015 we were given access to the old glass grindery behind the glassworks and since then the museum has developed to include a growing number of machines. The society Glas i Hovmantorp was disbanded in 2019 and instead a foundation was set up in 2020.

The idea behind the museum is to present the technical development that made the Kingdom of Crystal economically successful in the early 20^th century. By that we mean the hard technology. Techniques for blowing art glass is something completely different, we wanted to focus on the mass production of glassware.

When visiting, we were obviously struck by the pantograph. What sort of machine is that and what did the work look like for the person operating it?
A pantograph is a machine that prepares a certain number of glasses for etching. A pattern plate is placed on a drawing table and the pantograph operator follows the patterns of the plate with a needle. A more detailed description can be found on our website which also includes more about the pattern plates that were found together with the horizontal pantograph in Kosta.

There is not a lot of literature on the machines used at the glassworks. What we know is what we have been told. But because we have a pantograph and know how it works, we can figure out how the work around it must have happened. Visitors to the museum also get an understanding of it as all the machines in our collection can be handled. Based on photos from the 1950s of glassworkers without protective gear, tales by glassworkers and the fact that the etching bath is made up of hydrofluoric and sulphuric acid it is safe to assume that the work environment around the pantograph was not the best.

Dear visitor

On the map you see the many different museums that (Re)-learning the Archive is working with to build new design historical pathways. Via this map you will be able to follow how we stich a multitude of places, stories and perspectives together in order to create a kaleidoscopic design history. The map will indicate where these interesting places and museums are. In the Swedish version we have digital papers, “one page histories”, from these places and museums.

This website functions as an archive. In (Re-)learning the Archive we don’t collect quiet objects, but rather collaborations with places, people and organisations. We are in the process of translating this so it will be accessible for you too. In the meantime, if you want to have more information about any of the places and museums on the map you are more than welcome to contact us on: maija.zetterlund@designarkivet.se

Warm wishes,
(Re-)learning the archive