History
The Nikola Tesla Museum is housed in a residential villa built in 1927 according to the designs of Dragiša Brašovan, a distinguished Serbian architect. The building was used for various purposes until December 5, 1952, when the Nikola Tesla Museum was founded in accordance with the decision of the Government of the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia. The material for the museum was shipped from New York to Belgrade, Yugoslavia, on September 7, 1951, as a result of efforts by Sava Kosanovic, Tesla's nephew and closest relative and his attorney Wittenberg. It has been said this was "Tesla's will." No legal instrument or documentation bearing Tesla's signature has ever been found to substantiate this claim. It is believed that Tesla died intestate.
Tesla was an American citizen, and considered his prize possession to be his naturalization papers. He spent only 31 hours of his entire life on the present territory of modern-day Serbia. Over the past 60 years, a number of his papers have suffered water damage. This has led historians to consider it a disservice to Tesla that his trunks were removed from the United States of America. With renewed worldwide interest in Tesla's work in the areas of mechanical and electrical engineering, full and unhindered access is expected. Yet many original documents are uncataloged and have already been lost, stolen, censored or damaged.
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“A poet’s object is not to tell what actually happened but what could or would happen either probably or inevitably.... For this reason poetry is something more scientific and serious than history, because poetry tends to give general truths while history gives particular facts.”
—Aristotle (384–323 B.C.)
“The history of every country begins in the heart of a man or a woman.”
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“Every generation rewrites the past. In easy times history is more or less of an ornamental art, but in times of danger we are driven to the written record by a pressing need to find answers to the riddles of today.... In times of change and danger when there is a quicksand of fear under men’s reasoning, a sense of continuity with generations gone before can stretch like a lifeline across the scary present and get us past that idiot delusion of the exceptional Now that blocks good thinking.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)