The Ethnographic Museum in Belgrade was founded in 1901 by separating the Ethnographic Department from the National Museum.

The proposal and conceptual-theoretical basis for the creation of a museum devoted to the study of folk life was drawn up by historian Stojan Novaković, a regular member of the Serbian Learned Society (today's Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts). A variety of ethnographic items, including earthenware and metal utensils, jewelry, amulets, glass and textile items, weapons, tools, Easter eggs and other museum items, were transferred to the Stevča Mihailović Endowment - a house that Mihailović bequeathed in his will, "to the Serbian people for my eternal memory, with the aim of turning it into a museum for the Kingdom of Serbia".
Dr.Sima Trojanović was appointed as the curator (manager) of the Museum, and Nikola Zega was appointed as first curator, a little later. The first years of the Ethnographic Museum's existence and work were devoted to the purchase of objects and the presentation of the Kingdom of Serbia to the world. The items were collected during field research in what was then Serbia and neighboring countries where the Serbian people lived.
The ceremonial opening of the first permanent exhibition of the Ethnographic Museum was held on September 20th, 1904, celebrating the centenary of the First Serbian Uprising.
During the First World War, a large number of exhibits, documentation and libraries were destroyed. After the war, new field research was undertaken to complete the collections. In those years, the museum rarely visited abroad.
The museum library was renovated in 1920 and today has about 60,000 publications, including about 33,000 books and about 27,000 magazines in the field of ethnology, anthropology and related sciences. In the period between the two world wars, a New Inventory of all objects and an Alphabetical Register were created, the Department for Musical Folklore and the Illustrative Department were established, and the objects were classified according to the material from which they were made.
From the founding of the Museum until today, museum objects and ethnogenetic processes, traditional material culture, social relations and family life, customs, beliefs and folk creativity have been expertly collected and studied.
During the Second World War, museum objects were packed and removed from the former Museum building. Some years after the war, the Museum was moved to the building of the Belgrade Stock Exchange at Studentski trg 13. Today, the Museum's collections hold more than 120,000 museum items, including about 50,000 ethnographic objects.

Characteristics of Serbian culture are studied, but also characteristics of other ethnic communities living in the neighborhood. Apart from the collection of exhibits, since the 1960s, as a permanent form of work in the Museum, team research of the ethnographic areas of northeastern and western Serbia has been introduced.
Research results are published in professional and scientific journals and catalogs. Occasional and permanent exhibitions are organized in the Ethnographic Museum in Belgrade. To date, eight permanent exhibitions and hundreds of occasional exhibitions have been organized in the country and abroad.

The eighth permanent exhibition was set up in 2001 under the title "Folk culture of the Serbs in the 18th and 20th centuries". The regular program of the Museum since 1992 has also included the International Ethnological Film Festival. Workshops for children and adults, lectures, book presentations and concerts are organized in the Museum.

Significant dates in history Ethnographic Museum in Belgrade

“Srbsko narodni muzeum” (today's National Museum) was founded, within which an ethnological collection was also established
1844
The Kingdom of Serbia participated in the Ethnographic Exhibition and the All-Slavic Meeting in Moscow
1867
(August 22) Stojan Novaković, secretary of the Serbian Learned Society, presented a "proposal and draft for the Serbian Historical and Ethnographic Museum"
1872
(October 9) The director of the National Museum, Mihailo Valtrović, sent a letter to the Ministry of Education and Church Affairs requesting that the ethnological collection be separated from the National Museum and placed in the Stevča Mihajlović Endowment
1898
(October 27) The Ministry of Education and Church Affairs adopted Mihailo Valtrović's proposal for the establishment of an Ethnographic Museum
1898
(February) Dr.Sima Trojanović was appointed as the director of the Ethnographic Museum, and the Museum was housed in the Stevča Mihajlović Foundation, located on the corner of the streets of Kneza Miloša and Ilije Birčanina
1901
(June) Nikola Zega was appointed as the first curator of the Museum
1901
Participation in the First International Costume Exhibition in Petrograd
1902
(September 20) on the occasion of the centennial celebration of the First Serbian Uprising, King Peter I Karađorđević opened the first permanent exhibition
1904
Participation in the Industrial Exhibition in Liege
1905
Participation in the Jubilee Exhibition in Bucharest
1906
Participation in the Journalist Exhibition in Paris
1906
Participation in the Balkan Exhibition in London
1907
Participation in the Jubilee Exhibition in Turin
1911
A second permanent exhibition has opened
1919
A new system of inventorying objects was established, which, in addition to the Main Inventory and the Leaf Catalog, also included inventories by type of material
1922
On the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Ethnographic Museum, a professional scientific journal, the Gazette of the Ethnographic Museum (GEM), was launched
1926
The Department of Musical Folklore was established
1927
Participation in the International Exhibition in Paris
1928
Participation in the International Exhibition in Barcelona
1929
Participation in the International Exhibition in Geneva
1929
The Ethnographic Museum begins publishing special editions
1930
The Phonographic Department was established within the Illustrative Department
1932
(September 25) the Department of Folk Dances was founded within the Illustrative Department
1939
The folk song archive was moved to the illustrative department
1939
(on the eve of the war) museum objects were packed into crates and placed in three buildings on the corner of Njegoševa and Kneginja Zorka
1941
(during the year) the museum was moved to the arched building of the palace
1945
(at the beginning of the year) a new work plan for the Museum was created, six departments with 21 sections were established and the number of professional staff was tripled
1946
(May 1) the third permanent exhibition was opened, presenting folk life in the 14th century and the first half of the 20th century on the territory of Yugoslavia
1946
An exhibition entitled "Folk Art of Yugoslavia" was opened, with which the Museum presented itself in the country and abroad (in Germany, England, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, France and Norway)
1948
(August 1) The Ethnographic Museum was moved to a building at Studentski Trg 13
1951
(November 29) on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the Museum, the fourth permanent exhibition entitled "Traditional Culture of Serbia" was opened
1951
The Collection of the Ethnographic Museum in Belgrade 1901-1951 was published on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the museum's work
1951
The Educational and Pedagogical Department was established
1960
The fifth permanent exhibition entitled "Folk Art of Yugoslavia" has opened
1961
The ethnographic memorial collection of Hristofor Crnilović, at his request, as a gift collection, became part of the Ethnographic Museum and is kept in the Manak's House
1967
On the occasion of the seventy-five years of the Museum's work, the sixth permanent exhibition entitled "Folk Costumes of Yugoslavia" was opened
1976
On the occasion of the UNESCO General Conference in Belgrade, an exhibition entitled "Folk Art of Yugoslavia" was opened
1980
Manak's house has been handed over in its entirety to the Ethnographic Museum
1981
The history of the Museum is presented at the exhibition "Photographs of Nikola Zega" (author Ljiljana Gavrilović) in Manak's House
1983
The building of the former Belgrade Stock Exchange has been adapted for museum purposes
1984
The seventh permanent exhibition entitled "Folk Culture of Serbs in the Second Half of the 19th Century and in the 20th Century on the territory of the SR of Serbia" has been opened
1984
The history of the Museum was presented at the exhibition Ethnographic Museum 1901-1984 (author Ljiljana Ćertić) and a catalogue was published (authors of the texts: Aleksandar Deroko, Gvozden Jovanić and Ljiljana Ćertić)
1984
The museum received a gift from Stanoje Bojović's will, which included 17,381 negatives and 2,500 photographs
1991
The Ethnological Film Festival was founded
1992
Seka Mišević-Mijatović donated a collection of textile, pottery, metal and wooden objects to the Museum
1993
The Ethnological Film Festival has acquired international character
1994
The history of the Museum is presented at the exhibition "Serbia at the World Exhibition in Paris 1900", (author Vesna Dušković), which presents material that was once exhibited in Paris and specifically purchased for the needs of the Ethnographic Museum
1995
The history of the Museum is presented at the exhibition "Album Petar Ž. Petrović" (author Vesna Bižić-Omčikus)
1997
On the occasion of marking one century of the Museum's work, the eighth permanent exhibition entitled "Folk Culture of Serbs in the 19th and 20th Centuries" was opened
2001
On the occasion of the centenary of the Ethnographic Museum, the Proceedings of the Ethnographic Museum in Belgrade: 1901-2001 (editor Jasna Bjeladinović-Jergić) was published
2001
The history of the Museum is presented at the exhibition "Ethnographic Museum in Belgrade 1901-2001" (author Vesna Dušković) on the occasion of marking one century of the Museum's work
2001
The history of the Museum is presented at the exhibition "In the Beginning" (author Vesna Bižić-Omcikus) and the publication "In the Beginning: Dr. Sima Trojanović - researcher, scientist and first keeper of the Ethnographic Museum" has been published (authors of the texts: Vesna Bižić-Omcikus, Dr.Nikola F. Pavković, Dr.Dušan Bandić and Dr.Voislav Vasić and Svetlana Mitrović)
2002
The history of the museum presented at the exhibition "Collection Autumn/Winter 1867, Serbian Collection from the Russian Ethnographic Museum in Saint Petersburg" (authors: Vilma Niškanović, Olga Karpova, Vesna Bižić-Omcikus, Natalija Prokopyeva)
2005 - 2006
(September) the Annual Assembly of the ICOM Costume Committee was held, the project manager was Mirjana Menković, MA
2011
Within the Museum, the Center for the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Serbia operates as a separate organizational unit, which maintains and preserves the National Register of Intangible Cultural Heritage
2012
"Family Slava", an element of the intangible cultural heritage in the domain of social practices and rituals, has been inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. In accordance with the decision of the National Committee for the Intangible Cultural Heritage and the Ministry of Culture and Information, the nomination dossier for the element "Family Slava" was prepared by the Center for the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Serbia, and the proposer of the element was the Ethnographic Museum in Belgrade
2014
As part of the project "Digitization of the documentation of the National Register of Intangible Cultural Heritage and the use of new information and communication technologies in the preservation and promotion of intangible cultural heritage", implemented by the Center for Intangible Cultural Heritage within the UNESCO Participation Programme 2014-2015, an electronic National Register of Intangible Cultural Heritage (e-Register) has been established
2014-2015
"Kolo, a traditional folk dance", an element of the intangible cultural heritage in the domain of performing arts, has been inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The nomination dossier for the element was prepared by the Center for Intangible Cultural Heritage at the Ethnographic Museum in Belgrade
2017
"Singing to the accompaniment of the gusle", an element of the intangible cultural heritage from the domain of oral traditions and expressions and performing arts, has been inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The nomination dossier for the element was prepared by the Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage at the Ethnographic Museum in Belgrade
2018
"Zlakusa pottery", an element of intangible cultural heritage from the domain of skills and knowledge related to traditional crafts, has been inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The nomination dossier for the element was prepared by the Center for Intangible Cultural Heritage at the Ethnographic Museum in Belgrade
2020
Go to top