In Samarkand, the first museum was established in 1874 on the basis of archaeological, numismatic, ethnographic and geological collections. The museum was officially opened in Samarkand in 1896. In 1911, the museum’s collection was transferred into a special building constructed for the purpose. The museum consisted of several departments: nature, archaeology, ethnography and everyday life.
From 1934 to 1978, the museum was located in the former mansion of the famous merchant Abram Kalontarov (Abdurahman Jami Street, 51) and named as the State Museum of Cultural History of Uzbekistan in 1969.. Since 1978, the museum was located in a building at Registan Square in a historic part of Samarkand. In 1982, the Samarkand State Museum-Reserve was formed on its basis.
In 2010, the museum moved to another building in Mirzo Ulugbek Street, where it was officially opened after a major renovation in 2014.
The museum’s collection includes tens of thousands of exhibits, most of which are considered to be absolute rarities. It is divided into several thematic departments, such as history, art, archaeology, ethnography, fine arts, numismatics and bonistics, as well as a department of permanent and temporary exhibitions. Throughout its history, the museum has gathered broadest collections archaeological, numismatic, ethnographic, handwritten and documentary items, characterizing the culture and art of Uzbekistan, starting from the pre-historic time until the present day.
The museum has one of the richest collections of traditional Uzbek clothing (2,500 items), among which the collection of ceremonial wedding clothes of the 1880s and 1890s is particularly remarkable. The museum boasts a unique collection of gold-embroidered articles that came there in 1920 from the treasury of Emir of Bukhara. A full bride’s wedding set (mid- 19th–early 20th century) forms a part of the jewelry collection (1,500 items). A collection of carpets and tapestries produced by masters from Kashkadarya and Samarkand regions and the Fergana Valley, as well as Turkmen carpet makers in the late 18th–mid-20th centuries (more than 500 items) is also worth mentioning.
Over 2,000 stamped copper articles from Samarkand, Bukhara, Kokand, Khorezm and Fergana form a separate collection. The museum’s ethnographic collection also represents various types of Uzbek artistic craft made in the last two centuries, such as ceramics, carving and wood painting, leather processing, silk and semi-silk fabrics, upholstery, musical instruments etc. Porcelain produced by famous Russian factories in the late 19th – early 20th centuries and that manufactured by porcelain factories in Tashkent and Samarkand in the second half of the 20th century occupy a special place in the collection of the museum.
You can learn more about the topic in the book-album “The Collection of the Samarkand State Museum-Reserve” from the series “The Cultural Legacy of Uzbekistan in World Collections” (volume XVIII).
The main sponsor of the project is the oilfield services company Eriell-Group.
