Over 10,000 exhibits are registered in the ethnography collection of the Museum. The collection includes various groups of objects such as household utensils and tools, furniture, textiles and clothes, old and modern sculptures, ceramics, pictures, amber handicrafts and tiles. All the exhibits date from the mid 19th century up to the present. The most numerous groups in the collection are 2100 household utensils and tools, 2500 stove tiles, and 1168 examples textiles.
Oil lamp from the Museum collection. Photograph by M. BrazauskasHousehold utensils and tools contained in the collection provide us with details of the work, customs, traditions and way of life of the old inhabitants of Lithuania Minor.
The highly decorated and colourful tiles came to the collection from the houses in Klaipėda Old Town.
The old sculptures found their way to the Museum from Žemaitija (Lower Lithuania). The collection of around 300 figures found in the countryside chapels, graveyards, chapels and churches depict the saints.
Wooden sculptures from the Museum collection. Photograph by M. BrazauskasThe amber ware collection was started in the 1970s. Today it includes approximately 500 exhibits. It is made up of the works of contemporary folk artists F. Grigas, B. Sinušas, B. Anfimova, and others with beads, brooches, bracelets, strings and souvenirs.
The collection also includes several hundred ceramics. The most important exhibits from the pre-war ceramics of Klaipėda are earthenware bottles of various sizes. Ceramics of the second half of the 20th century such as vases, bowls, jars, jugs, and souvenirs are included. The collection of modern ceramics have been made by Klaipėda folk artists J. and J. Vilimai, R. Prikockis, R. Valaikienė and others.
Items from the ethnography collection are often displayed in exhibitions within the Museum and outside exhibitions are arranged by the department employees.
