Jakarta History Museum

In 1937, Oud Batavia Foundation proposed a plan to establish a museum about Batavia’s history. The foundation then bought a warehouse of a company, Geo Wehry & Co, that was located at Jl. Pintu Besar Utara no. 27 (now it’s the building used as Wayang Museum). The warehouse was then renovated as Oud Batavia Museum. In 1939 the museum was open for public. After the independence of Indonesia the name of the museum was changed to Old Djakarta Museum, under the responsibility of Indonesian Culture Institution. In 1968 the Old Jakarta Museum was handed over to DKI Jakarta’s government. On 30th March, 1974 the museum name officially changed to Jakarta History Museum by the government in-charged, Ali Sadikin.


Jakarta History Museum has up to 23,500 collections which some inherited from Oud Batavia Museum or Old Jakarta Museum, received from the government of DKI Jakarta, individual or institution grants. Material of the collection were varied, some are of medal, wood, crystal, ceramic, earthenware, porcelain, leather, paper, cloth, and bones. Some collections of Jakarta History Museum are partitions, execution sword, archives cabinet, paintings, and stuffs from prehistoric society, ancient inscription, and weapons. Some of the collections had been more than 1500 years old, especially those stuffs from the prehistoric age. Some of the stuffs are stone axe, rectangular pickax, and earthenware flask. You could see the underground prison, statue of Hermes and Si Jagur cannon in the garden side in the museum.