Museum complex of Mihajlo Pupin Idvor

The birth house of Mihajlo Pupin forms the part of the museum memorial complex in Idvor village dedicated to Mihajlo Pupin, situated in the original Serbian house of the Banat style from the middle of the 19th century. The Pupin’s birth house features a characteristic facade, and is set along the whole estate. The authentic interior describes the every day life style of the period when Mihajlo Pupin lived there. The Museum dedicated to the personality and work of Mihajlo Pupin is located in the old school structure, built in 1843. The Museum exhibition of Mihajlo Pupin Idvorski /which means Mihajlo Pupin of Idvor/ has been set by the Museum of Vojvodina in 1979. The memorial collection exhibits the life of the famous scientist, ever since the first knowledge about the world he got from his parents at home, until awards and glory for the scientific achievements in the States and in home-country. Please read more in the famous Mihajlo Pupin autobiography “From immigrant to Inventor”.

The National House of Mihajlo Pupin of Idvor is the foundation that the reputed scientist endowed to Idvor and its people, which was supposed to become a National University. The National House in Idvor has been built in academics style and opened in 1936, nearly a year after Mihajlo Pupin passed away /Pupin died in New York on 12th March 1935/. Along with the large hall, offices and the Library, the National House in Idvor worked as the Communal Cultural Center until 1979, when it got its present day appearance. The Museum complex dedicated to Mihajlo Pupin Idvorski was established in 1979, on the 125th anniversary of the birth of the famous scientist, and contains the Museum, the Birth House and the Foundation. This Memorial Museum complex in Idvor and numerous activities and events honor the brilliant scientist, inventor, professor, honorary doctor of 18 universities, prized by numerous research awards and decorations, honorary consul of Serbia in the United States of America. Visitors of the Mihajlo Pupin Museum in Idvor have opportunity to learn about the life of the Serbian scientific giant in ten departments – traveling through Idvor, the States, professorship and acknowledgements, time line, Autobiography, research works, national-political contribution, legacy to the National Museum, legacy to the University Library, and numerous charity activities, among which was the loan for support the Serbian army military campaigns at the Thessaloniki Front. On occasion of the second visit of Mihajlo Pupin to Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, in 1921, he asked his friend dr Niko Zupancic to order a large bell, which was 2300 kg in weight. Thanks to his connections and friendship with Bishop Nikolaj Velimirovic, Pupin decided to gift this bell as a present to town of Ohrid, about which we find testimony in the “Juzna zvezda” magazine, from August 1923, published in Bitola. For this bell Mihajlo Pupin paid 129000 dinars, with inscription on the belfry in Serbian : “Mihajlo Pupin, profesor Kolumbijskog Univerziteta u Americi. Bozanski  zvuci raznesite slavu palih junaka i potomstvu pricajte o njihovim velikim delima. Za pale heroje na Kajmakčalanu, 1921. godine”. /Mihajlo Pupin, professor of the Columbia University of America. Divine sounds spread the glory of the fallen heroes and tell your offspring about their great deeds. For heroes fallen on Kajmakchalan, 1921“/

Managers of the Museum strive to achieve the wish of Mihalo Popun and bring his foundation to its aim – to become a temple of Knowledge and Science. Aleksandra Ninković Tašić is the vice president of the Society of  „Mihajlo Pupin“ and author of numerous exhibitions about the scientist, as well as the owner of the richest archive in the world about Mihajlo Pupin. All his life, at every life-changing crossroads, Pupin carried within him the vivid images of his Idvor home, the memories of pastures where he looked after his cattle, where he was up to mischief with his friends, but also where he glanced at the starry sky for the very first time, as he lied down on the soft Idvor grass. Some of these experiences and observations that Mihajlo Pupin obtained in this summer shepherd school, as he himself liked to call “this carefree boyhood era”, became the integral part of his colossal discoveries several decades later. Today diverse tokens are taking us along the roads of Pupin’s legacy: his house where he was born, the church where he was baptized, the school where he learned to read and write, the old town’s cross, his Foundation and the tombs of his beloved parents Konstantin and Olimpijada. In 2004, for the occasion of the 150th anniversary of Mihajlo Pupin birth, his birth house in Idvor village has been thoroughly renovated. The most significant inventions of Mihajlo Pupin are displayed in the old school of Idvor, which is today turned into a museum, but used to be place where the famous scientist learned.