With a story spanning centuries, saying that Malta’s history is a source of pride for all Maltese would not be an understatement.
With all its place in the Mediterranean, its rulers, and influences, Malta’s history is in many ways unique when compared with that of other countries, and this is reflected in the amount of quality historical museums that the island can boast.
What Malta thus far lacks however is a museum which encapsulates its history as a whole: a National Museum.
This realization was namely born out of the news this week that Heritage Malta had successfully purchased an incredible letter sent and signed by Napoleon Bonaparte to one of his top generals detailing plans for the French invasion of Malta in 1798.
It is a purchase which must be praised and which will no doubt be a great addition to Malta’s collection of historical artefacts.
It is a purchase which also provided an interesting question: where would such a document be exhibited? After all, there is no museum specifically dedicated to the short-lived French period in Maltese history.
This is where a National Museum of Maltese History could come into play.
Such a National Museum could provide a taster of the different eras and periods which make up Malta’s long history, a perfect starting point for the culturally-inclined tourist or the curious youngster who wants to learn more about his past, while also serving as a place for the lesser known and spoken about periods of Maltese to be taught.
Malta already hosts a number of wonderful museums specialized in different areas of history, and such a National Museum should serve to compliment them rather than detract from them.
By giving a comparatively brief overview of Maltese history, and then pointing visitors in the direction of more specialized museums, such a museum can only contribute to bringing Malta’s to light without negating the presence of already existing museums.
Having such a museum could also promote increased versatility in how history is presented. Initiatives such as the recently inaugurated virtual museum, which combines history with new technology, would be right at home in such a museum, as would rolling exhibitions on a variety of topics – be they, for instance, biographical in nature, or perhaps even as a teaser of what other museums can offer.
Such exhibition space can also be used, for instance, collaboratively with the National Archives, the National Library and with the historical researchers who frequent these treasure troves, hence giving a space for lesser seen documents which are hosted at either of these facilities or at other archival facilities such as the Cathedral archives or the Notarial archives to be exhibited and shown to the public.
These are but a few ideas – in truth, history and its various branches are so vast that the possibilities truly are endless.
Such an idea would naturally require a certain level of investment, but it would not only be an investment in the building and its contents – it would be an investment in Maltese history and in the Maltese people as a whole.