Muzej Vojvodine

The beginnings of the tradition related to the Museum of Vojvodina are closely connected to Matica Srpska, that was established in Pest in 1826. The idea about a museum collection was born even before, back in 1825, when it was first mentioned on the pages of the literary magazine "Annals of Matica Srpska". This idea came into reality on October 14, 1847, when a decision was made to found the Serbian National Collection or the Museum, saying “it will be the venue, where all the antiques and valuables will be kept”. The first museum collection stems from Sava Tekelija’s rich legacy. Following a multi- decade long committed work, this collection had grown to become the Museum of Matica Srpska, and as such, it was opened on July 9, 1933. in Novi Sad, where Matica Srpska had been moved from Budapest in 1864. On 30th May 1947, with the goal to establish a central museum covering the entire territory of Vojvodina, a section was taken out of the material kept at Matica Srpska Museum, and that is how the Vojvodina Museum was founded as a complex museum with several collections covering archaeology, ethnology, history, history of art, zoology, botanics, geology-palaeonthology and minerology-pethrography. At the same time, the Museum was assigned to do professional supervision over all museums in the Province. Subsequently several further institutions emerged from the Vojvodina Museum and one of them was the Museum of the Working-Class Movement and the National Revolution, founded in 1956. This museum and the Archives of the Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of Serbia for Vojvodina were integrated in 1971. and became the Museum of Socialist Revolution - later the Historical Museum of Vojvodina. Finally, on May 20th 1992, the Vojvodina Museum joined the Vojvodina Historical Museum to become the Museum of Vojvodina.

After three decades of temporary residing in different locations, in 1974. the Vojvodina Museum moved into the current building, in which the court had once operated. The building was erected back in 1896, after the design of Gyula Wagner, an architect from Budapest. Next to this main building, there is another one that houses Museum of Vojvodina - former Museum of Socialist Revolution building that was constructed specially for that purpose, designed by architect Ivo Vitić in 1959. and built in 1965. Today it is the building where the Section of Recent History (20th Century) of Museum of Vojvodina is placed, along with the Museum of Contemporary Art of Vojvodina. The museum network also incorporates the following annexes: “Brvnara”- log cabin ethnic-house in Bački Jarak and the Museum Complex in Kulpin, as part of the Museum since 2004.

The Museum of Vojvodina is a reference centre for all the institutions dealing with movable cultural property, such as museums, galleries and art collections in the territory of Vojvodina. With its remarkable variety of departments, the Museum houses a rich collection of about 400,000 objects and a library with over 50,000 publications. The scientifically complex permanent exhibition presents the development of the human kind in the present territory of Vojvodina, covering the span of eight thousand years. On 3,000 square meters 6,000 objects represent archaeology, general history, arts history and ethnology. The permanent exhibition gives a synthesis of the region’s several millennia long history. For the Holocaust studies, the most significant Museum's holdings are placed within the collections of the Section of Recent History, situated in 37 Dunavska street (former Museum of Socialist Revolution). Most relevant on this topic are the collections of documents, photos and posters. The library containing relevant publications is also at researchers’ disposal.

The finding aid is available to researchers inside the institution in form of thematically and chronologically organized index cards.