Archival Materials
History of the Archival fonds and Collections
The creation of these fonds is connected with the very establishment of the museum. Through its acquisition activities, the NMA has obtained a collection of documentation on the history of forestry, agriculture and the food industry, and a wide variety of personal assets and minor collections, such as a collection of posters and cuttings. In 1930, the Central Study Archive of Agricultural History was established at the Prague central office of the Museum of Agriculture. Study archives were also founded at former branches of the museum in Opava, Frýdek-Místek, Brno and Bratislava. Donors of written documents primarily include the Ministry of Agriculture, the Czech Agriculture Council and the Central Directorate of State Forests and Estates in Prague. The archival materials of the Prague Central Office, branches and independent divisions of the museum – the Forestry and All-Horticultural Museum, became part of the Collection of Written Documents (today’s Archival Materials), which was concentrated onto the premises of the Kačina Palace in 1951. Within the structure of the museum’s collections, the Collection of Written Documents was integrated into the section of agriculture and forestry organisation from the 1960s, and since 1980, it has been located in the department of the History of the Agriculture and Forestry Organisation. Between 2003 and 2004, the museum archive was transferred from Kačina to the building of the Prague branch. Since 2008, written documents have been permanently stored in a newly restored and comprehensively equipped depository. Roughly since that time, their professional archival processing has been performed on the basis of valid standards (Act No. 499/2004 Coll., on Archiving and Records Management, as amended).
Significant Archival fonds and Collections
Documents created mostly later than 1850 are stored in the fonds of the Archival Materials. Only a few archive folders contain materials from an earlier date. These are primarily diplomas, instructional sheets or gubernatorial instructions, ordinances and circulars, whose creation falls mainly between the 18th and early 19th century. The most extensive and thematically most comprehensive archive folders are the personal funds of Jan Frič, Milan Jurkovič, Josef Kazimour, Otakar Kokeš, Jiří Koťátko, František Lom, Jiří Židlický, František Thomayer, Josef Kumpán, Josef Minnibergr and František Bílek.
Digitalised Archival Materials
Research visits
- by agreement made by phone or by e-mail: Bc. Jana Jakubská: +420 220 308 161; jana.jakubska@nzm.cz