Muzeul Universitatii "Alexandru Ioan Cuza"

Museums of universities have become indispensable institutions throughout the 19th-20th centuries to preserve the academic memory and history of intellectual elites. The Romanian world was not alien to this restitutio nal exigency, but institutional efforts were often synoptic, given the damage caused by the wars and the traumas that political changes involved. The current museum of "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" University was conceived in the spirit of continuing the efforts initiated over a century ago by scientists such as Teohari Antonescu and Orest Tafrali. The first institutional structure for the preservation of cultural assets in the academic space was born in 1916 and was dedicated to the preservation of the antiquities entered into the patrimony of the University as a result of the archaeological excavations in the Cucuteni culture area and the Greek cities of the Black Sea. During the period between the two world wars many of the initiatives aimed at preserving and capitalizing on the academic heritage belonged to Ilie Minea, a researcher who was particularly interested in the pieces belonging to the medieval Moldavian age. After the Second World War, all these materials entered the custody of the History Museum of Moldova, an institution subordinated to the Ministry of Culture. The interest in preserving all testimonies related to the University's activity can be noted with the inauguration of the institution, when Titu Maiorescu, rector between 1863 and 1867, was at its head. The initiatives regarding the scientific preservation and valorisation of cultural goods, through specialized publications, but later materialized, as the Iasi academic establishment affirmed a specific identity. The preoccupations for saving the historical patrimony of the oldest higher education institution in the country have intensified under the impact of the dramatic changes that Romanian society has experienced in the 20th century. These have led to the destruction of important testimonies, especially of infrastructure elements such as buildings or furniture, teaching materials and university courses. A number of other sources came to various private archives, or fragmentation of exhibits and documents was made by distributing them to the custody of public institutions. The transfer of the pre-war administrative documents to the National Archives of Romania, the Iasi County Service, where they were grouped into the Rectorate funds and those corresponding to the Faculties, constituted a positive enterprise. Unfortunately, even in this framework, it was not possible to classify, preserve and restore in a proper manner all the documentary testimonies regarding the evolution of Iasi's higher education. The scientific processing of sources is an intrinsic component of any research activity of the past, so centralization and systematization of data must be a priority for our University. From this point of view, it is necessary to reorganize the specialized institution in the management of the academic heritage and to professionalize the activities carried out at its level. In this work, it must be borne in mind that university museums are an expression of institutional prestige and also a catalyst for the academic community. Such formative spaces play the role of coagulating factor of each promotion, making for the graduates the main intellectual identifier.