Collections

Object Collection

All three-dimensional objects belong to a single unified object collection and are marked with one consistent numbering system.

Road Construction and Maintenance Machinery

The collection focuses on machines built in Estonia and/or widely used here. The pride of the museum collection includes Estonian-produced Bitvargen and Caterpillar road graders, as well as the most widespread example of the work of Arnold Volberg, designer of the first self-propelled grader in the Soviet Union — the V-10.

The core of the collection originates from machinery donated free of charge by regional road administrations, which has been either conserved or restored. Most large road machines are displayed in the machine hall or in the outdoor exhibition Teeaeg.

Vehicles

The vehicles in the collections represent typical means of transport from the horse-drawn and automobile eras, including horse-drawn and motor vehicles built in Estonia. These were used by road builders and maintenance workers both for work tasks and for travel on highways as well as on winter roads, bog roads, and ice roads.

Special attention is drawn to the Tartu coachman’s sleigh, the first mass-produced front-wheel-drive unibody passenger car Citroën, and the Pobeda once owned by composer Gustav Ernesaks.

Many vehicles are exhibited indoors, but a large part of the horse-drawn vehicles are stored in museum repositories.

Other Three-Dimensional Objects

This includes auxiliary equipment and objects related to road construction and maintenance processes (lights, signals, number plates, control instruments, measuring tools, work tools), vehicle accessories, uniforms, traffic regulation equipment (road signs, direction signs), office supplies from road administrations, badges, pennants, flags, and more.

Archival Collection

The archival collection mainly consists of materials transferred by the Estonian Road Administration and regional road authorities: documents, manuscripts, maps, plans, drawings, and an archival library including ephemera. Many former road workers and private individuals have also donated materials.

Documents and Manuscripts

The collection includes correspondence from county road departments and road administrations, personnel documents, inventory lists, files on roads, bridges, culverts and other structures, projects, work orders, work diaries, personal correspondence of road workers, preserved documents (employment certificates, driving licences, etc.), memoirs, and article excerpts.

Maps, Drawings, and Plans

The collection contains road maps from different periods as well as construction drawings and site plans of road structures.

Books and Journals

The collection includes books, reference works, textbooks, and technical standards related to road history and road construction. It also contains complete personal libraries of road institutions and prominent road professionals, as well as professional periodicals.

Ephemera

This includes advertising materials, brochures, stickers, calendars, bookplates, event handouts, folders, and more.

Photo Collection

The museum’s photo collection is very rich. It includes negatives, slides, and other non-paper photographic materials, as well as paper photographs and digital storage media (CDs). The materials depict the construction and maintenance of roads, bridges, and culverts, the life and buildings of road organisations, and also the leisure and private life of road workers.

The photo collection also includes film reels and video recordings in various formats. All received photographs have been scanned and entered into the MuIS database.

Negatives, Slides, and Other Non-Paper Photo Materials

Strictly speaking, only these are originals, but few have survived. Most negatives lack captions, and the photographed subjects are often difficult to identify. The collection includes glass plate negatives, 6x9 and 6x6 cm negatives, 35 mm roll negatives, and slides in various sizes.

Paper Photographs

Paper photographs are copies made from negatives. Since negatives have often not survived, paper photographs in various formats and quality must be considered originals.

Films and Video Recordings

This includes film reels and video recordings commissioned during road construction projects or produced by road construction and maintenance companies to document their activities. The collection also contains many traffic safety campaign videos commissioned by the Road Administration, and to a smaller extent amateur films made by road workers themselves.