Ankica Pandzic
Foreword
This year three museums celebrate their 150th anniversary. They are the Archaeological Museum, The Croatian Natural Science Museum, and the Croatian History Museum, all of them originating from one single museum - the National Museum. Through a symposium and a formal commemoration we mark the common beginnings, while the independent development and specific nature of the holdings of each of the museums will be presented through their separate museum exhibitions.
The Croatian History Museum has accompanied the exhibition with a catalogue in which we present all of the Museum’s collections. In this way we wish to draw the attention of experts and the public at large to the diverse and rich holdings, the cultural heritage of the Croatian people, which is kept in Museum. The catalogue presents fourteen of the Museum’s collections with brief introductory texts and about twenty exhibits from each one of them as chosen by the individual curators.
Although the Croatian History Museum has only limited facilities for organizing large exhibitions or a permanent presentation of the history of the Croatian people, over the past decades it has catalogued and exhibited numerous themes relating to our national history. The Museum has paid particular attention not only to acquiring, preserving and cataloguing material, but also to publishing it. 1968 marked the beginning of the systematic study and the publication of catalogues of the Museum’s collections with accompanied the Museum’s thematic exhibitions.
Nevertheless, the twenty-seven catalogues of the Museum’s collections published so far have covered only a small part of the material from the Museum’s large holdings. And so, along with my gratitude to the generations of museologists who have collected and preserved our rich cultural heritage, which we take great pride in today, I would like to express my graduated to all professional staff at the Croatian History Museum for their cooperation and their professionalism in carrying out their work.