Background
The most remote antecedent related to the foundation of the Museum and Municipal Public Library of Cárdenas, dates back to 1846, when the German sage Juan Cristóbal Gundlach established a Natural History Museum at the Finca “El Refugio”, one mile from the city.
During the first four years, it reports more than 1,000 visitors arriving from its nearby regions and even from distant places for whom the existence of such an institution was seen as an unusual and unusual event.
Later, Guldach moved his museum to the “La Fermina” farm near the town of Jovellanos, 20 kms distant from Cárdenas, where he remained until the end of the 19th century, infecting his dedication to the sciences of a whole generation.
It is highly appreciated that on January 3, 1900, 76 days before the founding of the Municipal Library Museum of Cárdenas, Juan Faz, a close friend of Gundlach, donated a copy of the Zunzún Colipte Helenae (lembeye), collected, dissected and classified by the German sage, becoming in fact a natural link between the museum created by him and the new center that is developing.
The European cultural currents of the time influenced in a remarkable way, in the creation of the museum, as a form of exhibition of the collections.
On April 30, 1895 in house no. 24 of Avenida Real (today Avenida Céspedes) between Cossío and Pinillos, 105 residents of the city interested in creating the Municipal Public Library Museum meet upon call.
In this historic meeting of the representatives of the most influential families in the city, the decision is made to join forces for the creation of this cultural institution, based on the offer made by Francisco E. Blanes Palencia to donate its collections of shells and snails terrestrial, marine and fluvial.
The moment chosen for the creation of the museum, although it corresponds to the objective conditions from the existence of important collections and the will to undertake the foundational works, could not have been more adverse from the political point of view.
A factor that immediately influences the fate of the museum, was given that most of the people interested in creating it, were themselves involved in some way, with the preparations to make war on Spain.
The rise to power in Cárdenas of prominent representatives of the Creole independence bourgeoisie is of extraordinary importance for the creation of the museum, bearing in mind that these figures were linked in some way to the efforts that had been made since 1895 with this objective. .
When the Cuban authorities took office on December 16, 1896, Joaquín de Rojas Cachurro, father of Oscar, one of the most fervent promoters of the museum, was appointed Municipal Mayor, who, from his influence and resources, became in one of the people who did the most for its creation and development.
General Carlos María de Rojas, son of Joaquín and brother of Oscar, is a key figure, both for the foundation of the museum and for the acquisition of pieces of great value with which the Historical Section is formed, which will be one of the basic collections of the center.
On March 19, 1900, when General Carlos M. de Rojas was Municipal Mayor, the collection of terrestrial, marine and river shells and snails donated by Francisco Blanes was publicly displayed in the premises provided by the City Council. In this way, the Municipal Public Library and Museum of Cárdenas is officially established, a work that becomes, from this date, one of the most appreciated dreams of the entire community of Cardenas.
In the two rooms of the Town Hall, the museum settled until September 22, 1900, when, given the growth experienced by funds and donations, it was determined by decree of Mayor General Carlos M. de Rojas to provisionally hand over part of the premises of the Barracks of Infantry, located in Génez y Salud street and share it with the rooms created.
In 1906 the second American intervention took place in Cuba, alleging the need to expand and improve the conditions of the soldiers of the 3rd Bon. of the fifth Infantry Corps of the United States Army located in Cárdenas, the spaces occupied by the museum in the former barracks are required to be ceded.
On December 14, 1906, the eviction of the museum was decreed, a process that culminated on January 16, 1907. The occupation lasted until February 24, 1908, the date on which the American intervention ended.
All the objects and collections of the museum were transferred to several family houses that had been offered, collections were also deposited in the Fire Station, in the Town Hall and in the Llaca school.
Due to the historical circumstances surrounding the birth of the museum at the dawn of the birth of the Cuban republic, and the challenges it has to face in the first decades of its existence, make it an act for the defense and reaffirmation of the sovereignty and national culture.
The construction of the building began on April 15, 1907 and by August of that same year it had already reached such a magnitude that it culminates with the roof of the chapel and the central tower. Parallel to the construction of the building, attention continues to be paid to the other activities of the Museum, especially the tasks to continue to increase the funds with new pieces and collections and service to the population.
On April 14, the American troops having withdrawn, the City Council returned to the protective committee, the dependencies that the museum occupied in the Infantry Barracks. Immediately the reinstatement processes of the museum begin, which opens its doors to the public on December 26, 1909.
On May 20, 1918, with great celebrations and the assistance of the President of the Republic and former President Don Tomás Estrada Palma, as well as other personalities, the museum was officially inaugurated.
At that time it had the following fundamental sections:
History of Cuba - included the room of Máximo Gómez, as well as several friendly and enemy flags. And some pieces of what would later become the Martiana Collection.
Natural History - where were the collections of numismatics, snails, minerals, butterflies, fish, mammals, mollusks, pottery and costumes.
The Armory - with weapons of various types many of which began with those of the Mambi fighters.
Art and curiosities.
Asian ethnography.
Library - at that time it already had more than 15 thousand Cuban volumes and books of extraordinary bibliographic and historical value. It was the eighth Cuban library but of an almost unsurpassed quality.
Efforts to continue expanding the library's funds increase significantly at this stage, until its definitive installation in 1919, in the room that will be used for it, in the building that is being built for a museum.
The museum suffers a great blow when on October 16, 1921, Oscar María de Rojas, the uniting soul of all the collections and rector of its principles, dies.
Conservation of the original project and educational activity 1922-1958
When Oscar María died, Blanes retired, the Protective Committee disappeared, and many of the most fervent defenders of the museum, and after the years of greater patriotic fervor, the institution went through hard tests again throughout the Republican period.
The world economic crisis that stretches during the years 1920-30, brings the country to a situation of ruin and extreme misery, which together with the consequences of the establishment of dictatorial governments, the cyclone that strikes the city of Cárdenas in the year 1933, will create an unfavorable situation for the museum and its operation.
In the 58 years of the republic, a strong awareness of the population was forged about the need to preserve the museum, as one of its highest creations. This explains why it manages to survive in this uncertain stage, where it seemed destined to disappear as a cultural center. In the early years of the 1950s, the prominent Cuban intellectual, Dr. Raúl Roa, who stands out for his advanced ideas in the cultural and political field, serves as director of the General Directorate of Culture; Roa's performance at the head of this department influences important decision-making regarding the activity of the few existing museums in the country.
The museum from 1959
The triumph of the Cuban Revolution on "January 1, 1959", meant a total reversal of the political, economic and social situation in the country, radically transforming society.
When the triumph of the Cuban Revolution took place, in the stage that goes from 1959 to 1963 the museum board is dissolved by municipal decree, the deterioration in which the building is located causes a fire so the property is partially closed. Between 1967 and 1968 some of the collections were provisionally moved to almost the same places as when it was made in 1906. Part of the collections that it owned pass into the hands of educational institutions, due to that and other factors, and many of the books that are lost are lost. They made up the immense library.
From 1968 to 1973, the institution was closed, and no work was carried out to promote its reopening. On October 10, 1973, the Birth House of José Antonio Echeverría was inaugurated, as a history section of the Oscar María de Rojas Museum, and on March 19, 1979, the institution reopened in the building of the old town hall, where it was first opened time. The role of the museum was strengthened in the 1990s with the inauguration of the Information Center, which has a variety of volumes on the history of Cuba and the territory, with materials and research carried out by the institution's technical staff, thus expanding the services that the center makes available to specialists and students.
When the museum was opened to the public it had 7 permanent and 4 temporary exhibition halls, as well as the following permanent exhibition halls:
Coins,
Medals
Weapons
Cuban butterflies
Conchiology
Aboriginal cultures of Cuba
Pre-Columbian cultures of America
Inaugurated on March 19, 1900, it is the second oldest museum in Cuba, with a heritage fund of around 100,000 pieces, distributed in 11 basic collections, in the areas of History, Pre-Columbian Cultures of America, Pre-Columbian Culture of Cuba, minerals, shells and snails, lepidoptera, coleoptera, weapons, religious ethnology, numismatics, and art.
In the period from 1959 - 2000, the life of the museum is marked by the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, and its transformative work in all spheres of society with special emphasis on Education and Culture.
After more than a hundred years of existence and inspired by the same ideals of its promoters, the museum implements a project to modernize the exhibitions and the organizational and management structures.
On December 5, 2003, Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz officially reopened the "Oscar María de Rojas" museum after a capital repair. This day marked an exceptional milestone in the history of the institution, which from this moment has the essential material and human conditions to raise work in the cultural and educational sphere to much higher levels.
The museum is the story of a work that was born surrounded by love, disinterest and a deep feeling of Cubanness. The museum was able to overcome all obstacles and found itself even though all the din of the fighting for the independence of the Spanish colonial yoke had not died down and the fate of the Cuban nation was uncertain and discouraging.
Rooms of the Oscar María de Rojas Museum
The Oscar María de Rojas museum is notable for the numerous pieces of great value that it accumulates in its rooms.
This is a museum that covers a wide thematic spectrum of the history of Cuba and the world, passing through numismatics and also bearing in mind various aspects of natural history.
The task of citing the most significant pieces among the museum's vast collection is very hard, and almost impossible since the number of pieces of first value that the museum has makes it almost impossible to make a small selection.
This museum has been enriched through more than 150 years of efficient search and management of the founders and followers of the museum's work.
It has 13 exhibition rooms and a small exhibition hall for contemporary art, which are:
Founders Room.
American archeology
Cuban archeology
Malacology
Minerals
World Entomofauna
Weapons Room
Numismatic room
Ethnology
History room
Room dedicated to José Martí
Art room
Veterans Center.
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