Fieldwork

The Norwegian Institute of Bunad and Folk Costume works continually on registering privately owned bunads and folk costumes all around Norway. 

This registration work forms an important basis for our dissemination and advisory activities. Approximately 81,000 costume elements from all around Norway have been registered in the archive. 

Registrations can arise in response to enquiries from the Norwegian Institute of Bunad and Folk Costume or to requests from local communities. Many registrations have been initiated in connection with reconstruction projects, but they can also be motivated by a wish to preserve cultural-historical documentation.

Garments don't have to be in perfect condition to be interesting. We register all kinds of folk costume elements: entire costumers, individual garments or sections of garments, silver jewellery and footwear. We are particularly interested in material from before 1900.

In our fieldwork we rely on cooperation from local partners, such as rural women's societies or handicraft societies, to take care of depositing and returning garments and for providing any information the owners might have about the objects on registration forms issued by the Norwegian Institute of Bunad and Folk Costume. Registration of the objects themselves is carried out by the staff at the Norwegian Institute of Bunad and Folk Costume.

Each object is photographed and its materials, colours, techniques and cuts described. This information is stored in Primus, a digital collection management system designed for registering, administering and describing collection objects. In this way, we preserve knowledge about garments and their provenance, and can facilitate their publication online in the DigitaltMuseum database.

If you or someone you know owns objects which you think we might be interested in registering, contact Ragni Engstrøm Nilsen, our collections curator, at ragni.nilsen@bunadogfolkedrakt.no