Original scientific paper
Šime Ljubić as Director of the National Museum in Zagreb from 1867 to 1878
Tihana Luetić
Abstract
Šime Ljubić was the first curator of the National Museum in Zagreb after this institution became a zemaljski zavod (an institution financed and overseen by the state) and given for administration to the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts in 1867.
In keeping with attitudes towards sciences at that time general, Ljubić, trained as an historian and archaeologist, tried to transform the Museum in an institution which would be in accordance with all contemporary achievements of these disciplines. His work, complementing and ordering the collections in the archaeological department of the Museum, obtaining and purchasing scholarly literature, scholarly and field-trips, editing the first official serial publication of the Museum, and making contacts with the most eminent experts in the field of archaeology of that time, shows that – in spite of financial problems – Ljubić succeeded in making a certain breakthrough in the Museum, particularly with regard to the previous period, when the Museum was used only as an educational institution for raising the “national self-consciousness.”
In 1878, according to the new law for museums, Ljubić became the first director of the newly established archaeological museum responsible exclusively to the government. From that time onwards, his activity became even greater, and thus the Museum advanced even more during that period. Thus, Ljubić left to his successor, Josip Brunšmid, solid foundations for Ljubić, future development of that institution.
All Ljubić’s activity in this article is reconstructed on the basis of the official correspondence between Ljubić, the Academy, and the government.
Keywords
Šime Ljubić; National Museum; archaeology; cultural history; the nineteenth century
Hrčak ID:
11185
URI
Publication date:
1.3.2002.
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