Peter Holm

Peter Holm (14 May 1873 – 1 February 1950) was a Danish museum director and curator. Holm is best known for creating The Old Town Museum in Aarhus, Denmark, an open-air 'living' museum on the history of Danish life and architecture with a focus on the changes brought to urban life by the industrialization of the early 20th century and the development of the city through time. Holm worked against established museum organizations to create the first open air museum in Scandinavia and one of the largest open air museums in Europe. Private life Peter Holm was born in Aarhus on 13 April 1873. He was from an old Aarhusian family of craftsmen and had from his earliest years an interest in history, especially locally. He graduated from Jonstrup Seminary in 1891 and from 1894 to 1918 he worked as a teacher at Aarhus Municipal schools. In 1898 he obtained a translator's license in translation in English and over the following years he translated a number of from English. In 1899 he was married with Agnes Charlotte von Haven (1876-1929) with whom he had the son Ralph Christian. He was self-taught in the museum world; originally trained as a school-teacher, later working as a translator in English and German in many years alongside his work at the museum. As a school teacher he was known for his skills of persuasion. He had a teacher's license in Swedish, German, English and French and was a teacher for 27 years, of which 20 took place in Aarhus. In 1907 he was elected to the board of the Aarhus Museum. The same year he was appointed to chairman for the committee to hold a historical exhibit of Aarhus on the Danish National Exhibition of 1909. In 1909 he was made inspector of the museum Den gamle Borgmestergård (English: The Old Mayors's Mansion), consisting of a stately house formerly occupied by many of Aarhus' mayors. For the National Exhibition Holm reconstructed in the mayor's mansion a number of rooms from different time periods between 1597 and 1848. The exhibition won such acclaim that a wish to preserve the mayors mansion as a museum manifested. After some negotiation the mansion was moved from the former exhibition grounds and rebuilt in 1914 at Aarhus Botanical Gardens.