THE ETHNOLOGICAL MUSEUM

The Museum which operates with the main objectives of "preserving cultural and historical objects for the present and future generations, and providing continuous assistance to researchers.", consists of five sections:

Ethnological or Material Culture

Art Gallery

Ethno-Musicological

Philatelic, and

Coins and Bank Notes collections.

Each of these sections has a wide-range of items and objects in its holdings. Collection of ethnographic objects was started in the early I950s at the former University College of Addis Ababa (UCAA). At about the same time, an ethnological society was established, consisting of mainly university students, to raise funds and to collect items from their origins carried out essentially by students returning home during vacations. In addition, the ethnographic objects and zoological specimens, collected by Italians (1936-41), were transferred from Ministry of Agriculture compound to the the main campus of Addis Ababa University.

Historically the IES museum was meant to be an ethnographic collection. However, because of the threat to an increasing number of old Ethiopian paintings, crosses and other valuable church appurtenances from illicit and commercial drives, the Museum decided to collect and preserve them in about 1965 in order to save them and start an art gallery. By 1975 the Museum had become the seat of the largest and most representative collection of Ethiopia's sacred art in public hands.

Currently, the IES Museum houses in one building the Ethnographic and the Traditional Art Collections, besides the Ethno-Musicological, the Philatelic, and the Coins and Bank Notes Collections. The major collections are the Ethnographic Collection and the Traditional Art Collection that are conveniently displayed on the two floors of the Museum.