Who doesn’t love a tiny museum, especially in a remote place like the South Coast of Iceland? The Skógar Folk Museum preserves the cultural heritage of Iceland through its collection of fishing tools and equipment; decorative arts and handicrafts; as well as books, manuscripts, and documents. It is the collection of one man, Thordur Tomasson, who began his preservation efforts in the 1940s. The open-air museum also includes a number of buildings, like a sod farm of three connected gabled farm houses. There’s a story behind the pieces of wood with letters on them. The early settlers in Iceland quickly realized that there weren’t enough trees to go around to build houses and boats so they often turned to driftwood that washed up on the shore. Families would mark their names or symbols on pieces of wood to “claim” it as their own.
Skógar Folk Museum, Iceland
