
The museum's heritage convincingly illustrates the great pretense and moments of great drama that Transylvanian society went through in the 20th century.
The period after the Great Union of 1918 constitutes a chapter of history very well represented in the museum's general collections. The decades between the two great world wars, the years of the Horthy occupation, then the establishment of the communist regime and the evolution of Transylvanian society throughout this era are richly illustrated by testimonies of the time that come from the central and local state authorities, from various other institutions, from great personalities and common people of the time in which they lived. No less relevant for the era are the various testimonies that illustrate the multitude of aspects of the daily life of man and society.
Objects of common use, from the most varied utensils, clothing, furniture, ceramics and glassware, weapons, photographs, manuscript notes, correspondence, publications, to pieces with a certain artistic value, are kept in collections as precious testimonies. Among the most valuable cultural assets are the Daicoviciu family fund, the Lapedatu fund, the Vaida-Voevod fund, the Şerban fund, but also the fund of the Historical Monuments Commission of Transylvania. For the generations to come, documents from the years after 1989 are also selectively archived, thus facilitating a nuanced understanding of the great changes after the period of the communist regime.