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ETHNOGRAPHY COLLECTION
Despite the museum’s almost half a century long history, only
two curators were involved in creating of its ethnography collection so
far: Djordje Tesic, museum counselor (from 1966 to 1973) and MA Zeljka Skoric,
museum counselor (from 1973). Its fund was enlarged mostly by purchase; the
displays were also purposely purchased for the needs of certain
exhibitions.
Smaller part of the exhibits was donated, either by
individuals or institutions (for example, the so-called “Agricultural
collection” obtained from the Faculty of Economy in Belgrade), or was taken
from the former Museum of the First Serbian Uprising. The collection
includes over 2000 objects related to so-called folk or traditional culture
of the Serbs, which had emerged and developed both in rural and urban
environment of the mid 19th and early 20th centuries.
Thematically, the collection covers the following:
- Traditional economy
- Costumes and jewelry
- House furnishings
- Folklore and religion
- Folk art
It’s not hard to conclude that Ethnography collection has
special place within the Historical Museum. Its parts are used not only to represent
but also to better understand the past, although their role is tentatively
symbolic. The best example of such approach is shown on the Museum’s
permanent exhibition “The Serbian Revolution 1804” in the residence of
Prince Milos in Topcider, where the ethnographic objects evoke the Serbian
country’s economy in the early 19th century. Thus livestock
breeding is represented by herdsman’s outfit and milk processing vessels,
land tilling by ploughshare and yoke, and cottage industry by weaver’s
frame and tools for shearing and wool spinning.
Also, the ethnological objects are often used to remake the
ambience, most often the cultural one, in which certain historical events
took place. Thus the environment in which the Serbs lived in the time of
the First and Second Serbian Uprising is evoked by the single-room log
cabin and urban Oriental house. However, when the subjects related to the cultural
history are concerned, these objects may prevail and even become the
leading ones, as it was done on the exhibition “Crafts on the Serbian
territory through the past”. Presentation of the development of crafts and
craft organizations was based on the rich collection of tools and products
made by blacksmiths, carpenters, tailors, potters, etc. Of course, some of
the crafts do not exist any more or are dying out. The same role the
ethnographic objects had on the exhibition “Dressing in Serbia of the 19th
century as the reflection of historical events”, where the notable
attention was paid to different cultural trends, brought to Serbia both from western
Europe and the Orient and which, most likely, influenced not only the urban
costume but also the rural.
Garments made of luxurious materials and richly ornamented
with silver and golden braids represent oriental influences, which
prevailed until 1830s, while certain mixture of western European and
Oriental trends in fashion marks the period from then to 1870s. Such
collision between the two cultures, had a profound effect on a costume of
the Serbian population, marked by specific combination of Levantines,
Balkan and European elements.
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