“This is where we do it!”. Materiality, family, and musealization in second homes

The materiality of family-inherited second homes offers a rich example of musealization in the private sphere. Presuming that relational socio-material practices that enact family culture and history take place at these houses, we conducted an observation and interview study by visiting ten family-inherited second homes in Denmark. In our analysis of these visits, we examine various practices by which musealization takes place in the second homes. We emphasize that the inherited second homes set scenes for musealization practices concerning a wide collective and temporally elongated family member circle. We also claim that unstable and undecided musealization practices can sometimes be useful for balancing past, present, and future claims of the second home’s materiality. We finally suggest that musealization practices in family-inherited second homes present vibrant and negotiable ways of relating to the past that might inspire cultural historical museums.