Karen Blixen Museum Nairobi
Karen Blixen Museum Nairobi is located 10 km from the city center Nairobi and the museum belongs to a different time period in the history of Kenya, the Karen Blixen Museum holds and tells the history of Kenya which is also among the unique attractions of the country situated near Nairobi. The museum was once the center piece of farm at the foot of the Ngong Hills owned by the Danish Author Karen and her Swedish husband, Baron von Blixen Fincke. The farm house gained the international fame and released the movie ‘’Out of Africa’’ which was an Oscar winning film based on Karen’s an autobiography by the same title.
Karen Blixen Museum is open to the public every day (9:30 am to 9pm) including weekends and public holidays, the visitors who come to visit the museum are always given the guided tours that are offered continuously. On the other side during your tour to the Karen Blixen Museum, there is a shop that offers the handcrafts, posters and post cards, the Movie ‘’out of Africa’’ books and other Kenyan souvenirs. The grounds may be rented for weeding receptions, corporate functions and events.
Karen Blixen Museum was built in 1912 by Swedish Engineer Ake Sjogren. Then Karen and her husband bought the museum house in 1917 which became the farm house for their 4500 acre farm, of which the 600 acres was used for the coffee farming, later after a period of eight years the marriage failed between Karen and Baron, then Baron moved on and left the running of the farm to Karen, where Karen lived at the house until her return to Denmark in 1931.
Then the house farm was bought by Remy Marin, who broke the land into 20 acre parcels for development, subsequent development created the present suburb of Karen. Later then the records show that Lt.Col.G. Lloyd, a British officer bought the hose in 1935 until his death in 1954, after passing away his daughter Mrs.G.Robersts and Lavender Llyod transferred the land title to Mrs. J.P Robson and Mrs. L.B Hyde in the city Hall records in 1956, then the house was purchased by the Danish government in 1964 and given to the government of Kenya as an independence gift. In 1985 the shooting of a movie based on Karen’s autobiography began and the National Museums of Kenyan expressed acquired the house for the purpose of establishing a museum. The government set up a college of nutrition and the museum was initially used as the principle’s house. In 1985 the shooting of a movie based on Karen’s autobiography began and the national Museums of Kenya expressed acquired the house for the purpose of establishing a museum. The museum was opened in 1986.
The Karen Blixen house meets three of the customary criteria for the historical significance. The first one is associated with the broad historical pattern of European settlement and cultivation of East Africa, Secondly it is associated with the life of a person significant to our past as the home of Baroness Karen Blixen from 1917 to 1931. As such, it served as the setting and basis of her well known book Out of Africa, written under the pseudonym Isak Dinesen and as a gathering place for other well-known personalities of the period. The third one the building embodies the distinctive characteristics of its type, period and method of construction. The house’s architecture is typical of the late 19th century bungalow architecture, including the spacious rooms, horizontal layout verandas, tile roof and stone construction typical of scores of residences built throughout Europeans suburbs of Nairobi in the early decades.
By 1985 the renewed interest in Karen Blixen occasioned by the film production of out of Africa, an agreement was reach with the collage for the house to become part of the National Museums of Kenya, many pieces of furniture that Karen Blixen sold to lady McMillan on her departure were acquired back and constitute part of the exhibition in the museum. The museum house remains a serene environment that seems to belong to the past, surrounded by a tranquil garden and the indigenous forest, with a splendid view of Karen’s beloved Ngong Hills. She honored the hills with the phrase ‘’I had a farm in Africa at the foot of the Ngong Hills’’.
In case you missed out, Out of Africa is a book which Karen Blixen wrote about her stay in Kenya and of her beloved farm, and was later made into a great movie, it shows her struggles she underwent to keep her estate and how her understanding and love grew for the culture and the people around her. In your tour to Nairobi Kenya do not miss visiting the Karen Blixen Museum so as it has the great information about the republic of Kenya.
During your tour at Hemingways Nairobi Hotel, take some few hours of your time and visit Karen Blixen Museum. This will give you chance to travel back in time where you can re-live your memories of Out of Africa, then to be specific if you’re a history lover then the Karen Blixen Museum is the best place to be in during your Kenya Safaris Tour.
