From the Regional Museum for Carniola to the National Museum of Slovenia: Collection, Collections and Collection Policy

European national museums, established after 1750, have played a role in national formation. The great majority were founded by the then social elites: wealthy enlightened aristocrats or industrialists, patrons, polymaths and rulers. The role of museums at that time was closely linked to the idea of the nation and its history. Most Austrian museums were established as regional ones, but the term national appears in some of their founding acts. This is the case, for example, with the present-day Universal Museum Joanneum in Graz, which was established as a regional museum for Inner Austria and is referred in its founding act as a national museum (Nationalmuseum). The same applies to the National Museum in Prague, as well as to the Regional Museum for Carniola, now National Museum of Slovenia, which will celebrate its 200th anniversary in October 2021. Its significance is also reflected in a letter from Joseph Kamil Schmidburg, Governor and President of the Provinces, to the Indigenous Friends of Science, in which he mentions a plan to collect material for the collections of the museum. The scope of the collections was intended to cover everything from national literature and national creativity, as well as anything created by nature or human effort. The museum was to keep all memories of the fate of the land and the merits of its inhabitants. The museum's collection policy at that time reflected the status of the museum. It has changed considerably since the collapse of Austria-Hungary, but even more so in the present day, when in the Republic of Slovenia national museums no longer have nation- or state-forming functions.