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The Whaling Museum
Commander Chr. Christensen's Whaling Museum was founded in 1917 by the whaling ship owner Lars Christensen. He named the museum after his father and gave the museum and its collections and exhibitions as a gift to Sandefjord Borough.
The Whaling Museum was established in a newly built structure drawn up by the architect Nils Winge Grimnæs. The architecture is focused around the museum’s most iconic object – a full-size model of a blue whale – which can be viewed from a gallery held up by 12 columns. The museum was expanded in 1981 and included another exhibition hall as well as offices and a library. This wing was renovated and expanded from 2018. This provides space for larger exhibition areas and facilities for visitors.
The oldest section of the building has historical value in itself. At the same time, the display of fauna in the Arctic and Antarctic also functions as an introduction to whaling history. This part is currently undergoing a renewal process. Several modern exhibition elements have recently been added and integrated into the unique atmosphere of the hall.
The Collections
The Whaling Museum’s main focus is the catch of larger whales in the Antarctic in the 1900’s. The collections are mainly associated with natural history and include the Whaling Collection, Sandefjord Town Museum, Sandefjord Maritime Museum and the Sandar Village Collection.
The museum has an extensive photo and film collection located at a storage facility, a large collection of literature about whales, whaling and the polar regions as well as several hundred metres of shelves of historical archives stored at the Vestfold Archive.