Sandefjord Museum
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sandefjordmuseene (official name Commander Christen Christensen's Whaling Museum, also called The Whaling Museum Sandefjord or Hvalfangstmuseet) located in Sandefjord, Norway, was inaugurated in 1917 as a donation to the town of Sandefjord from Consul Lars Christensen, the son of Commander Christen Christensen.
When it opened in 1917 the museum building was one of the first original museum buildings in Norway. Lars Christensen had two main goals when opening the museum; to inform the public about the Antarctic and its fauna and animal life, as it was a relatively unknown continent at the time, and to tell the story about whaling as an industry.
Today, the Whaling Museum’s aim is to be a central institution in the presentation of a wide range of material connected to the history of whaling as well as the ecology and management of whales and their habitat.
The museum is host to international conferences related to whales and whaling, the latest one being held in September 2005.
Southern Actor is a restored whale catcher built in 1950, now a related museum ship open to the public.
