History of the Vietnam History Museum

History of the Vietnam History Museum

In 1927, the Society for Indochina Studies (Société des études indochinoises) inherited a valuable collection of antiques from an Indochina-based French collector. On that occasion, to preserve and display those relics, the regional government decided to build the first museum in the Cochinchina (Cochinchina or the South of Vietnam). The construction was completed in 1929. Its name was given after the Cochinchina's governor as Musée Blanchard de la Brosse.
One month after the Independence Declaration of Vietnam in September 1945, the museum was nominally renamed as Gia Dinh Museum by the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
In 1954, the museum was fully handed to the government of the Republic of Vietnam after the French’s colonial withdrawal. Two years later, it was renamed as Vietnam National Museum.
After the reunification of the North & South Vietnam in 1975, it was officially named as History Museum of Ho Chi Minh City (to distinguish it from the Vietnam History Museum in Hanoi).

References:
1. The History Museum of Ho Chi Minh City (10 April 2022).
2. Vietnam National Museum of History (10 April 2022).
3. Wikipedia (10 April 2022).

Le Thi Nga My