Book 100 years of the National Museum of Agriculture
On the occasion of the anniversary, we published a book about the National Museum of Agriculture.
The book was published in the Czech language in an edition of 200 copies and was not available for free sale, but it is available for download as a pdf document on the website, as well as its English version, which we offer to you.
-------
Summary
There are almost 500 museums in the Czech Republic. Of these, 32 were established by the state and only in 8 cases, their name includes the epithet ‘national’ or ‘regional’. It is great honour for the National Museum of Agriculture to bear its name, that is, to be a national museum focused on agriculture including forestry, fishing, food production, gastronomy, rural development, landscape, and related subjects. As apparent from its century-long history (see chapter Agricultural museum – service to Czech countryside, society, nation), this museum had to work towards and fight for being a ‘national’ institution. It also has not been easy to preserve this honour to this day.
For the past one hundred years, the National Museum of Agriculture has been active in gathering collection items, stories, and knowledge pertaining to all parts of agriculture. What has been achieved is described in the part of this publication dedicated to the individual subcollections (in chapter On the subcollections of the National Museum of Agriculture). This book also presents our museum’s activities in science and research (in chapter Science and research in the museum in early 21st century).
Importance of the various sectors of national economy is in our modern and rich society measured using their contribution to the gross domestic product (the GDP) and the number of people they employ. Only about 4% of Czech population is active in agriculture (including forestry and fisheries) and its share in the GDP amounts to approximately 3%. Through the prism of these numbers, agriculture as a whole may seem relatively unimportant. Yet it would be a mistake to think so. Agriculture provides raw materials for food production and subsequently also gastronomy, and high-quality, healthy, and affordable food from domestic production is important for everyone. Of importance for individuals but also society as a whole are also issues such as food self-sufficiency and security, sustainable agriculture, forestry, and fisheries, landscape protection and care, as well as protection of water and soil: all these elements are part of our national wealth.
The National Museum of Agriculture tries to present these subjects within their broader context to families with children, to schools, and to all visitors who wish to engage in investigation and experiential learning in our exhibitions, expositions, and special events. This publication therefore deals not only with the past (in chapter Why we need a National Museum of Agriculture) but also the present (in chapter Museum communication), and naturally also future (wee discuss the Museum’s vision). Readers can thus learn not only about the past, but also about the present and about factors which contribute to a formulation of museum’s vision for the future.
The aim of research carried out as part of preparation of this publication was perform a critical analysis and evaluation of activities, both past and present, of the National Museum of Agriculture, within their requisite context. Another aim of this publication was to identify the factors which play an important role in formulating the museum’s vision for the future. The authors of this publication are convinced that the book you have in your hands brings new interesting facts, shows existing knowledge within new contexts, the text is the result of critical analysis and evaluation, and factors identified as important for future vision have been sufficiently discussed. Discussions within their relevant context will continue and your views and contributions will be most welcome.