(This post is sort of about how a reader’s mind works. By example.)
Nordiska Museet did a collection for their 1973 anniversary, and asked people for a “birthday present for the future” in the form of “please write about your day today”.
Robert, 12 tells the story about his day. In 1973. Young Robert (“Bäba”) tells us about his family, his pet’s name, his crafts teacher, his dance lessons, but then goes into a crafting project that’s about building canoes. They were group-building them, and would make 7 of them. One for each participant. That’s a lot.
När vi har ätit ska vi ha musik sen ska vi skriva om oss. Sen ska vi till slöjden och jag har syslöjd och vi har också träslöjd. Jag håller på med att knyta makrame. Min sy fröken heter Britt . Jag går på dansskola på tisdagar och bygger kanot på måndagar. Vi är 7 st. som ska bygga en varsin kanot. Vi har gjort en kanot. Den skulle han som vi lånade formen av ha. Vi håller på med den första. Den ska Dag ha. Jag och Torbjörn ska ha en blå färg på våran kanot. Snart ska vi spola is. Då kan vi åka skridskor. Det är toppen:
Den 24 oktober 1973
Minnen.se (Swe. memories) is a website dedicated to such digital collections. It is a part of Digitalt Museum, which has a nice about page in English. (Notice how this blog post now stopped being about the young author of a letter?)
If you want to search digitized collections for things and documents, Digitalt Museum is pretty good. The search results take you to records shown in a uniform way, but the data is stewarded by different actors – different museums all over Sweden. With Digitital Museum I have searched for, and found, many woodworking implements, medieval paraphernalia, industrial-age mementos, and other ephemera.
Some of the collected information is generic – a sled, a belt, a bucket. Other things are unique documents, such as these photos of a boat trip in the early 70s. Lots of fashion details to savour there.
And this taxi car: “Old car outside scouts building” (Photo: Roland Burman / Marinmuseum)
I liked the process between these two images: the set-up and the party. Note the short and stubby shape of the beer bottles.
