Centenary of the Estonian National Museum

The history of the Estonian National Museum is the story of the self-awareness and self-assertion of the people, which has many characters but only one central figure - the people. It is a museum built, supported, protected, and its collections carried together by the people. Wider interest in the informed collection, preservation and study of the spiritual and material culture on the initiative of the native intelligentsia led to the establishment of the Estonian National Museum on 14 April 1909. During its hundred-year existence the museum has relentlessly been doing its daily work, keeping and protecting the cultural history trusted to it - even through several wars and periods of occupation. The rich material, photography and art collections and an archive of cultural history materials - a total of more than one million units, is open to the public. The mission of the museum today is to link generations, people and interest groups living in Estonia and to contribute to the preservation of Estonian identity and ethnic peculiarity.