Aceh Museum

Aceh State Museum, popularly known as Aceh Museum or Banda Aceh Museum is a museum in Banda Aceh, Indonesia. It is one of the oldest museum in Indonesia.HistoryColonial periodThe original building of the Aceh Museum was in the form of a traditional Acehnese stage house . This building was originally used as the Aceh Pavilion in the ground of De Koloniale Tentoonsteling in Semarang from August 13 to November 15, 1914. The original intention was that the stage house would be dismantled and moved to the Netherlands.The pavilion showcased Acehnese artefacts, most of them are private collection of the ethnographer Friedrich Stammeshaus, which in 1915 became the first curator of the Museum of Aceh. During this exhibition, Aceh Pavilion managed to become the best pavilion. Because of this success, Stammeshaus proposed the Civic and Military Governor of Aceh, HNA. Swart, to bring the pavilion back to Aceh and used it as a museum.The building was returned to Koetaradja in Aceh, and since August 31, 1915, it was officially opened on the Esplanade of Koetaradja with Stammeshaus as the first curator of the museum. Stammeshaus remained a curator of the museum until 1933.After his retirement, Stammeshaus sold his personal collection of 1,300 ethnographic objects to the Colonial Institute in Amsterdam, now the Tropenmuseum. In this collection were many highlights of Aceh artefacts, including gold jewellery, Acehnese weapons, amulets, photographs and everyday utensils. The most famous sold to the Tropenmuseum is the personal coat of Teuku Umar.