For many years, highly erudite specialists built the museum following the ‎example of Western European museums and managed to raise a huge collection, ‎considered one of the richest and most diverse in the Balkans. The exhibition ‎‎"130 years of the National Museum" tells about the objects from the collections, ‎interwoven with the biographies of the people who studied, collected and ‎presented them.‎

‎"The exhibition is dedicated to the founders of the museum”, explains Ch. ‎Assistant Professor Iglika Mishkova, Ph.D., on whose idea the impressive ‎exhibition has been organized. “Visitors will learn more about people who ‎connected their life and professional path with themuseum work. We tried to go ‎beyond the framework of our predecessors, the founders of the museum, who ‎gathered and represented, first of all, the Bulgarians, and the Orthodox ‎population. We decided to include the other communities that live on the territory ‎of the country, as well as a modest collection of foreign artefacts”.‎

The exposition presents a new look "behind the scenes" of the museum's work, ‎because over the years prominent researchers and public figures, representatives of ‎the Bulgarian intelligentsia, writers, poets, composers, artists have worked there.‎

Their efforts in researching and collecting exhibits for the museum after the ‎Second World War are remarkable. On March 30, 1944, Sofia experienced the ‎heaviest bombardment in its history. The fallen shells also destroyed the building ‎of the People’s Ethnographic Museum. The objects from the exposition, archive ‎and library were irretrievably lost, while part of the collections were evacuated ‎and saved. ‎

The then director, ethnographer Hristo Vakarelski, took the responsibility to ‎restore the destroyed cultural heritage. Grain and ready-made factory materials ‎were procured, which the ethnographers loaded onto trucks and began their ‎journeys through the villages to collect items for the museum's future collections. ‎They gave to people wheat, fabrics, socks, etc. in exchange for folk costumes, ‎tablecloths, rugs and carpets.‎

Teachers and artists seconded to the People’s Ethnographic Museum also played ‎a huge role:‎

‎"All the artists after the war returned to the museum, underwent a special course ‎conducted by Hristo Vakarelski and then went to carry out fieldwork  to ‎document cultural phenomena in different parts of the country. And each one of ‎the objects in the museum was painted by them in fabulous watercolors - ‎‎"passports" of the acquired artifacts, filled in by the ethnographers and stamped ‎with the personal seal of the director”, says Dr. Mishkova in an interview with ‎Radio Bulgaria. “Visitors to the exhibition can get acquainted with 130 personal ‎stories, read curious stories about all these people written by their contemporaries, ‎their own accounts, get a deeper insight into their personal lives."‎

‎In 1954, the National Ethnographic Museum was housed in the former Prince's ‎Palace - one of the oldest buildings in Sofia with an interesting history. Until ‎today, the museum is housed in the eastern wing, where the bedrooms, reception ‎rooms and private offices of the royal family were located. And the museum staff ‎continue to preserve the objects and look for the most attractive way to present ‎them to the public