Description: During a trip to Geneva earlier this year, I was impressed to find that many of the streets which bear the names of famous or important people, have a brief explanation under the street name sign of who the person was or mentioned some notable achievement of theirs. But in Oslo, no such introduction was required: Norway seems to have had an abundance of over achievers of the last couple of centuries and most of them have earned themselves an eternal commemoration on the map. For me, a couple of those names stand out in particular: Roald Amundsen, Fridtjof Nansen and Thor Heyerdahl.
Of course, they aren’t just commemorated in street names. Three museums on the Bydgoy peninsular, a short boat ride from the city centre across the Oslo Fjord are dedicated to aspects of Norway’s seafaring achievements. The first looks at Norway’s maritime history in general while the second is dedicated to Thor Heyerdahl’s remarkable voyage to South America on his balsa wood raft, the Kon-Tiki. I would happily have visited either of these but in the end we chose the Fram Museum which focuses on Norway’s not inconsiderable achievements in the fields of Arctic and Antarctic exploration.
The exhibition centres on the remarkable vessel, the Fram, built in 1892, which is actually on display in the middle of the building; the other exhibits are displayed on three floors which surround the ship. The design works brilliantly for a number of reasons. First it places the Fram at the very heart of the museum with the information about it all around; you can read about some aspect of the ship and turn around and see it right behind you. Second, the interior, with its three levels of walkway around the outside, it very reminiscent of the interior of a ship; whether by design or not, it’s very fitting.
The building is a triangular shape, which is a very Norwegian style and it looks in keeping with other buildings on the peninsular; it has a great view over the Fjord from the upper levels. An introduction to exploration of the Arctic is displayed on a series of panels on the exterior wall as you approach the museum from the dock. The ticket office is just inside the door and it can be something of a scrum to get through the loitering tour groups, and up to the desk. There’s a barrier to enter the museum proper but it would be easy to slip into the museum without paying (I am NOT suggesting anyone does this) because this area is also the gift shop and it’s hard to tell who is queuing for tickets and who is just hanging around.
The mighty Fram is straight ahead of you and fills the central part of the space. A statue of Fridtjof Nansen stands just in front of it and you start your tour on the left hand side. The story starts by describing some of the earlier attempts to navigate as far north as possible and then moves on to Nansen’s plans. His plan was to get to the North Pole but he did manage to navigate further north than anyone else before him and he achieved this in 1896. In actual fact the ship moved virtually on top of the ice; Colin Archer, a Norwegian boat-builder of Scottish descent, built what was the strongest ship of all time. In 1898 Otto Sverdrup took the Fram to Greenland, and later still the Fram was given a refit and a diesel engine when Amundsen took her to the South Pole.
On the next floor the story continues with more items belonging to Nansen and the men who sailed with him on the Fram over several voyages. On this floor you can access the Fram itself, explore its decks and then go down below and see the galley, the tiny cabins and even go right down into the hold. I loved seeing into the cabins; you can’t go into any (they are little more than a glorified cupboard) but you can peer through a glass panel. Inside each cabin you can see articles of clothing that the explorers would have worn, mostly made from animal skins; when you compare them to the sort of clothing worn by such adventurers today, you wonder how people managed to survive those terrible conditions.
The museum is very good at putting the voyages into a wider context. There are examples of plant life that have been collected in those hostile environments and some (I presume) stuffed birds and animals to show what creatures live there. There are plenty of charts and maps to illustrate the scale of the achievement as well as a good number of photographs. All captions are in English and Norwegian (and also several other languages).
The voyages of Sverdrup and Amundsen are also covered though Nansen and his expeditions are the main focus of the museum. I knew a bit about Nansen before I visited but only about his expeditions; in fact Nansen went on to have an exceptionally interesting and useful career as a diplomat and did much work to improve the lives of people in far flung parts of the world. Ine of his most notable achievements was the introduction of the "Nansen Passport" which was issued to stateless refugees and he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in conjunction with this.
The Fram Museum is about much more than one ship; it looks at man’s fascination with pushing boundaries and continually breaking new ground, and the lengths to which men will go to make these achievements. Lately I’ve become very interested in snow and ice exploration and it was great to find that this aspect was so well covered; I’d probably not have been so interested had the Fram been a conventional ship sailing on the open seas. As well as the maritime and scientific aspects of the voyages, the museum looks at social and cultural history as they relate to the subject. There is a brilliant collection of handmade artefacts made by native peoples of the far north and excerpts from the diaries of members of the teams that sailed on the Fram.
We stayed a couple of hours but could easily have stayed longer; you need at least ninety minutes to really get around and see a good part of the exhibition. There were quite a few people visiting with children and most of them appeared to be enjoying the experience. It’s not particularly interactive and children will need quite a bit explaining to them but with stuffed polar bears and the chance to explore the Fram, there are things that will certainly appeal to kids.
I found the museum absolutely enthralling and my visit served to further increase my interest in the subject. This museum is expertly curated, the displays are well captioned and the variety of exhibits is brilliant. If I lived in Oslo, I’d probably ask for a season ticket!
Admission 60 Kroner, roughly £6.00 – a bargain!
Close