Fototeka: 20th century in Photographs of the National Museum of Contemporary History

The National Museum of Contemporary History was founded in 1948 as the National Liberation Museum of the People’s Republic of Slovenia. It was one of the first museums of the revolution that were founded in the Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia after the end of the World War II. Its purpose was tied to acquiring and exhibiting the material from the period of the national liberation struggle.

In 1952, a special department was created as part of the museum, called the Fototeka, where the photographic material from the World War II was stored. Over time, the collections of the Fototeka surpassed the period of the World War II and were complemented with the visual material of the entire twentieth century. The photographic archive of the National Museum of Contemporary History is the largest photographic archive in the country and serves as a source for study, evaluation, and understanding of the previous century.