History of National Technical Museum
Predecessors of the National Technical Museum can be seen in
collecting activities of the Professional Engineering School
(established in 1717), Prague Technical University (1806)
and Czech Industrial Museum (1873). Some of their
collections are now in our Museum. The National Technical
Museum itself was established in 1908 under the name
Technical Museum of the Czech Kingdom with a modern
programme of documentation of principal development trends
of technical progress, evaluation of their benefits to the
society, and preserving representative samples of this
development for future generations. All these are the
activities through which the National Technical Museum has
been, since its founding, contributing to understanding the
character and sense of modern civilization.
The National Technical Museum was established with the
initiative and funds of Czech technical intelligentsia, in
particular of the team of professors of the Technical
University. It was managed and funded by the Technical
Museum Association the members of which were well known
factories and banks. The Association was creating a wide
members' base diversified into professional groups presided
over by renowned Czech industry personalities. As early as
in 1910, the Association made the first collections
accessible to the public (in the Schwarzenberg palace at
Hradcany). Until 1935, it collected, through sophisticated
financial policy, the funds for construction of a new
(present) building, that was realized in 1938-1942. However,
this building was confiscated by the German nazi
authorities and the Museum found its refuge in unsuitable
premises of the Prague Invalidovna.
After the War, the
Museum received back only a part of the whole building and
only recently the National Technical Museum has been getting
back the remaining premises that have been in its ownership.
In 1951, the Museum was nationalized and the institution
received its present name. Subsequently, the Association was
dissolved, linkages with industry were broken. The National
Technical Museum became a museum and scientific institution
with a nation-wide range of action. The state subsidies have
enabled to rise the number of employees and to put money
into new exhibitions. In the years before 1989, the Museum
succeeded in increasing its importance as a research and
editorial institution for the history of sciences and
technology, as well as in presenting itself through
successful foreign exhibitions. In this way, it rose the
awareness of itself in many European countries.
Today, the National Technical Museum has a status of the
central museum of the Czech Republic and the scientific
institution with the documentation, presentation,
methodological, and information functions. The basis of its
activities are the collections that have been created as the
nation's memory.
Zdenek Rasl , iso@ntm.anet.cz