Nunatta Katersugaasivia Allagaateqarfialu (Greenland National Museum & Archives)

Overview

The Greenland National Museum & Archives (Greenlandic: Nunatta Katersugaasivia Allagaateqarfialu) is Greenland's largest museum of cultural history, located in Nuuk's historic colonial harbor district. It combines the country's national museum and national archives functions.

History

The National Museum began in the 1960s as a private initiative supported by a museum association, housed in Nuuk's Moravian mission station (built in 1747). It opened to the public in 1963, held its first exhibition in 1965, and was officially inaugurated on August 23, 1966. Museum and archive administration was among the first areas of government Greenland assumed responsibility for following the introduction of Home Rule in 1979. Restoration of the old Royal Greenland Trading warehouse in the colonial harbor began in the late 1970s to house a modern National Museum, which moved into the renovated buildings in 1978; restoration work continued until 1992. Greenland's National Archive was established as an independent institution under the country's first archives law, passed November 1, 1982 (the first museums law had been passed January 1, 1981). The previously separate National Museum and National Archives merged on January 1, 1991, to form the Greenland National Museum & Archives. The National Archives has been based at Ilimmarfik, the University of Greenland, since 2009.

Collections, Holdings, and Publications

The museum's holdings include the Qilakitsoq mummies, comprising three women and a six-month-old child dating to the mid-15th century, along with archaeological, historical, and craft artifacts, some repatriated from the National Museum of Denmark through the Utimut ("Going back") program. The National Archives holds records from Greenlandic state institutions and authorities as well as private archives, including parish records, inspectorate and trade managers' archives, local authority archives, and teacher training college archives.

Access and Usage

Most archival collections can be accessed once they reach 25 years old, though some records are restricted until they are 80 years old. The institution receives records from public institutions across Greenland as well as from private donors and responds to research enquiries concerning Greenland.