Boerenkamer in een museum te Middelburg c. 1890 - 1910

Here is a photographic print titled "Boerenkamer in een museum te Middelburg" by the brothers van Straaten. In it, we see a staged interior, complete with figures dressed in what was understood to be traditional garb. This image invites us to consider how constructed notions of identity are performed and preserved. The figures are arranged almost as ethnographic displays. The woman standing is frozen in a pose, her gaze averted. We see the male figure seated at the table, engaged in what appears to be a transaction. Meanwhile, the seated woman beside him is actively spinning, the epitome of domestic industry. The arrangement prompts us to reflect on how gender roles and economic activities were idealized and perhaps re-imagined in the cultural imagination. The very act of placing this “peasant room” in a museum turns everyday life into a spectacle. What is lost and what is gained when a culture seeks to preserve itself?