History
The History Department is divided into the following collections:
The documents collection contains documents issued by the state, schools, cultural institutions and banks officials that have a great value for the reconstruction of the medieval, modern, and contemporary historical reality of this area. There are several documents relating to the 1848 – 1849 revolution, to the First World War and the Unification in 1918 and the Second World War.
The historical photography collection contains pieces starting with 1860 and ending with the present days, illustrating different realities from Oradea and other cities, representing buildings and lost monuments, postal cards, family photographs. The collection’s importance lays in the value of the documents but also in the history of photography for the particularities of the techniques.
The maps, layouts and historical graphics collection contains stamps, engravings, drawings, maps and old atlases from the 16th – 19th century, referring to Oradea and Bihor and other areas of the Central-Europe.
The collection referring to the institution’s history is also one of great importance because it contains valuable documents regarding the beginnings and the development of the museum from Oradea, starting with 1872 until nowadays.
The weapons collection contains both white weapons and accessories, fire weapons from the medieval, modern and contemporary period.
The old-book collection contains mainly foreign old books from the 16th – 18th century, most of them having a historical and religious thematic, but also Romanian old books from the 17th – 18th century. There are three exceptional pieces, three prints from 1643 – 1661, belonging to the old printing house from Oradea, among which, there is the famous Bible printed in 1660 – 1661.
In the collection of modern and contemporary objects there are old clocks, old instruments and musical devices, old equipment (cameras, typewriters, phonographs, cinematographic projection equipment, etc.) and a wide and diverse range of everyday objects. A special mention for the Aurel Lazar memorial collection and the pharmacy collection.
