The museum was started in Nuuk in mid-1960s as the first museum in Greenland and is Greenland’s largest museum of cultural history. The collections have ever since expanded, from excavations and with repatriated material from the ‘Danish National Museum’. The museum works with archaeology, recent history, arts and crafts and houses the central registers of listed buildings and monuments and undertakes conservation provisions of the law on protection of monuments and buildings, as well as participating in nature conservancy and urban planning. The museum safeguards and promotes the history of Greenland, and our collections come from all over the country: it advises the Greenlandic government in all affairs regarding permission for excavation of ancient monuments, as all excavated material belongs to Greenland. A visit to the National Museum is an experience and opportunity to gain insight into the many cultures that have existed in Greenland. The first museum exhibition opened in 1965 in the old (1747) ‘Moravian Mission House’; the National Museum was inaugurated in the same building on August 23rd 1966 and was subsequently moved to its current location in the 1970s after a repatriation program between the National Museum of Denmark and the Museum of Greenland had begun. The repatriation program, called ‘Utimut’ (“Going back”), meant that thousands of Inuit items that had been taken to Denmark by explorers, was returned to Greenland: the museum outgrew its original building and had to be moved to the current buildings. The first legislation on museums in Greenland was passed on January 1st 1981, and the first legislation on archives on November 1st 1982. The National Museum and National Archives were separate, independent institutions until they joined forces on January 1st 1991 under the name Greenland National Museum & Archives. The majority of the museum and office buildings are from 1930-34, with an extension from 1992. Opposite the main entrance is a cooper’s workshop from 1887. The building closest to the bridge was a carpenter’s workshop, built on the foundations of Hans Egede’s church in Nuuk. Next to that is the old Royal Greenland Trading store from 1850.
The archive is primarily tasked with ensuring the preservation of archival material and is furthermore responsible for the collection, organization, preservation, registration, research and dissemination of Greenland’s cultural and social historical development. The first law on archives was passed on the 1st November 1982 and ‘Greenland’s National Archive’ was founded as an independent institution. On January 1st 1991 the Museum and the National Archives, which previously had been two separate institutions, were merged under the joint organisation ‘Nunatta Katersugaasivia Allagaateqarfialu’ (‘Greenland National Museum and Archives’). The institution receives records from all public institutions in Greenland as well as from private donators: the archive is available for enquiries concerning records on or from Greenland. The collections of the National Archives consist of both the archives of state institutions and authorities, as well as a range of private archives. The archives are comprised primarily of documents, but in some cases also include photographs, maps, sound recordings, and films. Below are examples of what you can find in the extensive collections of the National Archives.
Parish archives: church ledgers, censuses, missionary archives, correspondence, sermons, catechist diaries, school archives
Inspectorate archives: Recors of the governor of south and north Greenland, reports, populations statistics, catch and production statistics, managerial negotiations, council and district records
Trade managers’ archives: Correspondence, outpost managers’ archives, censuses, manuals, account books, itemised accounts, reports
Local authority archives: Correspondence, school archives, case records
Teacher training college archives: Correspondence, sermons, students grade cards, timetables
Greenland Home Rule, Department archives
The private archives of individuals, association, and corporations
Most of the collections can be accessed when they are 25 years old, others not until after 80 years.
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