Documentary Fund

Documentary fund

The campaigns of researches and acquisitions made by the Museum's staff stood for the forming of the Documentary Fund.

A. The first research and acquisitions campaign took place in Hateg Country and Padureni region in 1922, and it was made by professor Romulus Vuia and ended by getting 1.230 objects and 160 ethnographical photos. The collection made then contains objects of hunting, fishing, shepherding, agriculture, different occupations, trades, costume pieces, various weaving fabrics and embroideries, adornments, home use objects, spinning forks, objects connected to the spiritual culture, customs etc. which were presented for the first time into an exhibition in the spring of 1923. The same year a research campaign was made in Banat, for getting objects, especially costume pieces ana wooden objects.

Two years later in 1925 the Museum gathered objects from Beius and Maramures - weaving fabrics, wooden objects, peasant furniture, and shepherding objects. In 1928 there are made research and acquisitions campaigns in Cluj area, Apuseni Mountains, the south of Ardeal, Baia Mare, Salaj, Bistrita, Nasaud, enriching the Museum patrimony with 550 ethnographical objects. In 1929, after getting the plot from Hoia for the Ethnographical Park, nearby the Cluj city, the house from Vidra, Avram Iancu commune was brought and transferred in the Park, the first house that was remade in an open-air museum in Romania.

In 1939 Teglas collection was bought from the antiquarian Samuel Leitner from Sibiu, collection made of 273 objects that contains icons on glass, pottery vessels, "pomelnice" (objects used by the priest in the memory of the dead during the religious services) and objects belonging to the Nomadic Gipsies (beads and various objects used in the magical practices). In 1940 the Museum acquired a collection of arrows and bows with arrows from New Guinee that had a great didactic and scientific value. During the war new acquisitions were made from Sibiu area, where the Ethnographical Museum took refuge.

After the war, the first significant acquisitions were made in 1949 when Cluj county was studied from the ethnographical point of view. The objects came from Maguri, Marisel, Bontida. In 1950 the Museum acquired a collection of xylographs - 34 pieces - that belonged to professor Ion Muslea. Also a donation of pottery objects was received by the Museum from Prundu Bargaului potters.

Between 1950-1951 the Museum made researches in the Transylvanian Plain at Catina, then at Medias (vine culture), Rimetea-Trascau (the trade of metal processing), Iara (the trade of clay processing). In 1951 professor Romulus Vuia's specialized library was acquired, the Museum becoming the owner of the richest and most completed specialized library in the country.

The research and acquisitions campaigns were continued after 1956, in Salaj, Moti Country, Maramures, Nasaud, Marginimea Sibiului, Transylvanian Plain, Calatele Depression, Zarand areas etc., being bought ethnographic objects (textiles, costumes, pottery, painted furniture, spinning forks), and monuments of folk architecture for the Ethnographical Park.

Documentary fund

B. The private collections represent another source of completing the documentary fund: OROSZ COLLECTION was acquired in 1923. His collection counted about 5,600 objects that come from various nationalities of Ardeal (Romanian, Hungarian, Szeklers, Gipsies, Bulgarians, Jewish). LEITNER COLLECTION, acquired in 1923, was made of 300 pottery pieces, including the gild vessels of a special ethnographical and artistic value.

C.The donations, which were made as separated collections, are: SEXTIL PUSCARIU DONATION (1923) DMURGOCI DONATION made by the Ministry of Arts through Alexandru Lapedatu (1925) The professor Murgoci had an international collection mad of embroideries and Ukrainian costume pieces, female shirts from Moldavia and Bucovina, national and international (especially Oriental) pottery, pottery and wattles of the Native Americans, Maori objects from New Zeeland, Japanese prints.;SABINA CANTACUZINO DONATION (1934), with costume pieces from the Old Kingdom. MARIA PANEA DONATION (1975) with over 1,200 ethnographical objects from Calatele area (Cluj).

D. Excepting the great collections, the museum also acquired or was donated with a few small collections: STEFANIA BACIU COLLECTION, acquired in 1923 from Stefania Baciu, a teacher form Lugoj, it is made of 25 pieces of Banat costume: shirts, peasant skirts ("catrinte", "oprege", fragments of "oprege") etc. GEORGE OPRESCU COLLECTION, acquired in 1923 from professor George Oprescu, it is made of 140 negatives and diapositives (film slides) and other objects from Oltenia and Muntenia. DENIS GALLOWAY COLLECTION, acquired in 1927. The English painter Denis Galloway had an ethnographical collection of over 600 objects from Padureni area (Hunedoara County).

THE AUXILIARY DOCUMENTARY FUND - This documentary fund is available both for specialists and for public. It could be viewed, in exchange for a sum of money, at the main building of the Ethnographical Museum of Transylvania.

The library: 13,225 volumes (books and specialized publications);

The photos fund: 45,387 pieces;

The archive photos

The diapositives fund (film and glass slides): 10,005 diapositives

The negatives fund: 46,102 negatives (on glass and on film)

The ethnographical-folkloric archive: 350 note-books (containing answers at the Ethnographical Museum of Ardeal's questionnaire "Winter Customs", 30 seminar papers made by the students who participated to the ethnography and folklore courses taught by Romulus Vuia, between 1926-1947)

The scientific archive.

Visit program

Main Building's Section

Tuesday-Sunday:

9 a.m.-5 p.m., Monday closed.

Ethnographic Park "Romulus Vuia": 1st of May - 31st of October: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. (last entry 4 p.m.), Monday closed. The Park is closed between 1st of November and 30th of April.

Acces: buses - lines 26, 27, 28, 30, 41, "Piata 14 iulie" station

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