Karen Blixen Museum was once the centre piece of a farm at the foot of the Ngong Hills owned by Danish Author Karen and her Swedish Husband, Baron Bror von Blixen Fincke. Located 10km from the city centre, the Museum belongs to a different time period in the history of Kenya. The farm house gained international fame with the release of the movie ‘Out of Africa’ an Oscar winning film based on Karen’s an autobiography by the same title.
The Museum is open to the Public every day (9.30 am to 6pm) including weekends and public holidays. Visitors are encouraged to be at the Museum by 5.30. Guided tours are offered continuously. A museum shop offers handicrafts, posters and postcards, the Movie ‘Out of Africa’, books and other Kenyan souvenirs. The grounds may be rented for wedding receptions, corporate functions and other events.
Baroness Karen BlixenThe Museum was built in 1912 by Swedish Engineer Ake Sjogren. Karen and her husband bought the Museum house in 1917 and it become the farm house for their 4500 acre farm, of which 600 acres was used for coffee farming. The house was sporadically occupied until purchased in 1964 by the Danish government and given to the Kenyan government as an independence gift.
The government set up a college of nutrition and the Museum was initially used as the principal’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.
Distant View of Karen BlixenKaren also known by her pen name Isak Dinesen was born at Rungstedlund in Denmark on 17th of April 1885 as the second child of Wilhelm and Ingeborg Dinesen’s five children. She came to Africa in 1914 to marry her half cousin and carry out dairy farming in the then British Colony of Kenya. Her husband had however changed his mind and wanted to farm coffee. Her uncle Aage Westenholz financed the farm and members of both families were share holders. The coffee farm did not do well, suffering various tragedies including factory fire and continuous bad harvest. After her divorce, Karen was left to run the financially troubled farm on her own, a daunting task for a woman of that generation. She fell in love with an English man, Denis Finch Hatton, and his death in Tsavo in 1930 coupled with the failed farming left Karen little choice but to return to Denmark. She turned to writing as a career following her departure from Africa and published to increasing acclaim such works as Seven Gothic Tales(1934) Out of Africa(1937) and Babette Feat (1950). She died on her family estate, Rungsted, in 1962 at the age of 77.
The Karen Blixen house meets three of thecustomary criteria for historical significance. First, it isassociated with the broad historical pattern of European settlement andcultivation of East Africa. Second, it is associated with the life of aperson significant to our past as the home of Baroness Karen Blixenfrom 1917 -1931. As such, it served as the setting and basis of herwell known book Out of Africa, written under the pseudonym Isak Dinesenand as a gathering place for other well known personalities of theperiod. Third, the building embodies the distinctive characteristicsof its type, period and method of construction. The house'sarchitecture is typical of late 19th century bungalow architecture,including the spacious rooms, horizontal layout verandas, tile roof andstone construction typical of scores of residences built throughoutEuropean suburbs of Nairobi in early decades.
Thechronology of the house begins with its construction in 1912 by thewealthy Swedish civil engineer, later honorary Swedish consul to Kenya, Ake Sjogren. It served as the main residence on his Swedo-Africancoffee company , an estate of over 6,000 acres. The house was soonvisited while on safari by the Danish count Mojen Frijs, who upon hisreturn to Denmark persuaded his cousin to seek their fortune in Kenya.Baron Blixen acquired part of the estate in 1913 and the remainder in1916. Karen Blixen called the house "Bogani" or "Mbogani" meaning ahouse in the woods, and occupied it until 1931.
By 1985, with renewed interest in Karen Blixen occasioned by the filmproduction of Out of Africa, an agreement was reach with the collagefor the house to become part of the National Museums of Kenya. Manypieces of furniture that Karen Blixen sold to Lady McMillan on herdeparture were acquired back and constitute part of the exhibition inthe Museum. The Museum house remains a serene environment that seems tobelong to the past, surrounded by a tranquil garden and indigenousforest, with a splendid view of Karen’s beloved Ngong Hills. Shehonours the hills with the phrase ‘I had a farm in Africa at the footof the Ngong Hills’.
For further information contact.
The Curator (Ms. Damaris Rotich)
Karen Blixen Museum
P.O Box 40658- 00100 GPO, Nairobi.
Tel: 020- 8002139
The Museum is open to the Public every day (9.30 am to 6pm) including weekends and public holidays. Visitors are encouraged to be at the Museum by 5.30. Guided tours are offered continuously. A museum shop offers handicrafts, posters and postcards, the Movie ‘Out of Africa’, books and other Kenyan souvenirs. The grounds may be rented for wedding receptions, corporate functions and other events.
Baroness Karen BlixenThe Museum was built in 1912 by Swedish Engineer Ake Sjogren. Karen and her husband bought the Museum house in 1917 and it become the farm house for their 4500 acre farm, of which 600 acres was used for coffee farming. The house was sporadically occupied until purchased in 1964 by the Danish government and given to the Kenyan government as an independence gift.
The government set up a college of nutrition and the Museum was initially used as the principal’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.
Distant View of Karen BlixenKaren also known by her pen name Isak Dinesen was born at Rungstedlund in Denmark on 17th of April 1885 as the second child of Wilhelm and Ingeborg Dinesen’s five children. She came to Africa in 1914 to marry her half cousin and carry out dairy farming in the then British Colony of Kenya. Her husband had however changed his mind and wanted to farm coffee. Her uncle Aage Westenholz financed the farm and members of both families were share holders. The coffee farm did not do well, suffering various tragedies including factory fire and continuous bad harvest. After her divorce, Karen was left to run the financially troubled farm on her own, a daunting task for a woman of that generation. She fell in love with an English man, Denis Finch Hatton, and his death in Tsavo in 1930 coupled with the failed farming left Karen little choice but to return to Denmark. She turned to writing as a career following her departure from Africa and published to increasing acclaim such works as Seven Gothic Tales(1934) Out of Africa(1937) and Babette Feat (1950). She died on her family estate, Rungsted, in 1962 at the age of 77.
The Karen Blixen house meets three of thecustomary criteria for historical significance. First, it isassociated with the broad historical pattern of European settlement andcultivation of East Africa. Second, it is associated with the life of aperson significant to our past as the home of Baroness Karen Blixenfrom 1917 -1931. As such, it served as the setting and basis of herwell known book Out of Africa, written under the pseudonym Isak Dinesenand as a gathering place for other well known personalities of theperiod. Third, the building embodies the distinctive characteristicsof its type, period and method of construction. The house'sarchitecture is typical of late 19th century bungalow architecture,including the spacious rooms, horizontal layout verandas, tile roof andstone construction typical of scores of residences built throughoutEuropean suburbs of Nairobi in early decades.
Thechronology of the house begins with its construction in 1912 by thewealthy Swedish civil engineer, later honorary Swedish consul to Kenya, Ake Sjogren. It served as the main residence on his Swedo-Africancoffee company , an estate of over 6,000 acres. The house was soonvisited while on safari by the Danish count Mojen Frijs, who upon hisreturn to Denmark persuaded his cousin to seek their fortune in Kenya.Baron Blixen acquired part of the estate in 1913 and the remainder in1916. Karen Blixen called the house "Bogani" or "Mbogani" meaning ahouse in the woods, and occupied it until 1931.
By 1985, with renewed interest in Karen Blixen occasioned by the filmproduction of Out of Africa, an agreement was reach with the collagefor the house to become part of the National Museums of Kenya. Manypieces of furniture that Karen Blixen sold to Lady McMillan on herdeparture were acquired back and constitute part of the exhibition inthe Museum. The Museum house remains a serene environment that seems tobelong to the past, surrounded by a tranquil garden and indigenousforest, with a splendid view of Karen’s beloved Ngong Hills. Shehonours the hills with the phrase ‘I had a farm in Africa at the footof the Ngong Hills’.
For further information contact.
The Curator (Ms. Damaris Rotich)
Karen Blixen Museum
P.O Box 40658- 00100 GPO, Nairobi.
Tel: 020- 8002139
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