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.
