As early as 1878, J.A. Wikström, company manager for the timber and mining company, began collecting and storing objects from Norrbotten. On 20 September 1886, city leaders in Luleå established the Norrbottens Museiförening to curate and expand the Gellivara collection into a full museum. The collection was initially housed in borrowed space, but in July 1936 the museum moved into a new dedicated building designed by the architect . Norrbottens Museum was a pioneer in pan-Scandinavian cooperation among museums, working as early as the late 1960s with the
Tromsø Museum in Norway and the
Northern Ostrobothnia Museum in Oulu, Finland, to mount joint exhibitions and tours. This effort led to the founding in the late 1970s of the Nordkalottmuseet (Arctic Museum of the Nordic Countries) cooperative effort. == References ==