Historisches Museum Bern Musee Historique de Berne

Collections

The collection is the basis of any museum. The collections of the Bernisches Historisches Museum comprise some 500,000 objects divided into four main categories: the archaeological collection, the historical collection, the numismatic collection and the ethnographical collection. The collections are an archive of the material culture and part of our historical and cultural memory. It is the duty of the Museum to extend the collections in a meaningful way, to preserve, research and to educate. 

In order to make the collections available to future generations, they must be stored securely and under ideal conservational conditions. The choice of climatic storage conditions depends on the requirements of the material concerned. Metal objects, for instance, are stored in a drier environment than wooden objects. The storage facilities of the Bernisches Historisches Museum comprise a combined area of approximatley 5000 m², almost equalling the exhibition floor space. Some 1000 m² of storage space of the highest modern standard is available in the Kubus annex. Other storage facilities are located outside of the Museum. 

Several thousand photographs of the objects in our collections are available as slides, Ektachromes and negatives. These publication-ready originals are accessible to editors, schools, publishing houses and researchers. Order photographs