Historia Universitatis Iassiensis 9, 65–79
Abstract. The Antiquities Museum in Iași was founded in 1916 as an annex to the University of Iași, whose main objective was the valorisation of the archaeo-logical heritage from the researches carried out at Cucuteni. At the same time, he established himself as a study laboratory for the students of the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy, by creating an Archeology Seminar, which was coordinated by the director of the institution, Oreste Tafrali. The historical recovery of the functioning and organization of this Museum is possible today by consulting the Archival Fund kept at the County Service of the National Archives in Iași. Documents created during the operation of the Antiquities Museum include both received and issued correspondence, as well as infor-mation on how to build its patrimony. This form of recovering the history of an institution through the docu-ments created during its operation is one of the easiest, compared to the other cases when the history consists of unconstitutional documents in a fund or not provided to public institutions. The manner in which the story of this Museum is related, in conjunction with the well-known information about the organi-zation of other similar institutions in the country, can today be a good opportunity to rewrite the main stages and actions that the Antiquities Museum in Iași has revealed in the time. The information can be related to the articles dedicated to the Antiquities Museum in Iași by its founder, Oreste Tafrali, with the passages captured in the memoirs works of contemporaries, or with the analyzes in the scientific articles, aimed at presenting the situation of the museums in Romania in the first half of the twentieth century.
