This September, the National Museum of Lithuania will unveil an exhibition unlike any it has staged before – a sweeping exploration of Lithuania’s high-tech history, developed in collaboration with some of the country’s most prominent names in the technology sector. Among the partners are Atrandi Biosciences, Ekspla, the Innovation Agency, Integrated Optics, the Lithuanian Laser Association, Light Conversion, NanoAvionics, Optoman, Telia, Teva, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Unicorns Lithuania, Vilnius University and others. Organizers hope the exhibition will not only mark a significant cultural event, but also serve as a catalyst for developing the field of science and technology history in Lithuania.

A World-Class Story That Has Yet to Be Told

Today, Lithuania ranks among global leaders in laser technologies, remains internationally competitive in biotechnology and information technology, and over the past decade has emerged as a visible and fast-growing part of Europe’s space technology and robotics ecosystem. And yet, the story behind these achievements has largely gone undocumented—fragmented across institutions, private archives, and personal memory, rarely presented as a cohesive historical narrative in museum spaces. More often, technology has been exhibited through demonstrations of how it works, rather than how it came to be.

“Lithuania has a world-class technology sector, but its history is scattered across university laboratories, company archives, private drawers, or simply people’s memories – it has never been institutionalized. With this exhibition, we want to fill that gap and begin a long-term process: to gather, preserve, and present Lithuania’s high-tech heritage in the way the world’s leading museums do,” says the museum’s director general, Dr. Rūta Kačkutė.

According to science historian Dr. Ramūnas Kondratas, collections of science and technology have long been considered part of national identity abroad. In the United States, major collections are held at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History, the National Air and Space Museum, and the National Museum of Natural History; in Europe, comparable institutions include the Deutsches Museum and London’s Science Museum.

“The history of science and technology helps us understand how societies develop, why certain ideas prevail, and how our present world came into being. What would we do today without our computers and smartphones? How would we have endured the Covid pandemic without biotechnologies that created vaccines?” Kondratas says.

To prepare the exhibition, the museum has drawn on scientists, innovators, and high-tech companies where the experiences of early researchers and pioneers still live on – carried forward through people, practices, and ongoing technological traditions.

“Lithuania’s technology sector is exceptionally strong, but its history is fragile. It exists in prototypes, early experiments, hand-drawn schematics, student projects, the first lasers, the first robots, the first satellites. If we do not collect it now, in a few decades we simply won’t have this history anymore. That is why we continue to invite anyone who has objects, documents, prototypes, photographs, or stories related to Lithuania’s technological past to come forward and help expand our narrative,” says Simona Širvydaitė-Šliupienė, head of the House of Histories and curator of the exhibition.

Partners as a Guarantee of Quality

The exhibition, titled “Trajectory of the Future: The History of Lithuania’s High Technologies,” will open in September at the House of Histories. Its development brings together leading figures from Lithuania’s high-tech sector—companies, researchers, and innovation leaders whose work shapes the country’s global reputation.

Their involvement is both a mark of expertise and a symbolic gesture: for the first time, the technology community is engaging this broadly and collectively in a national museum project.

“This exhibition is a collaborative effort, where the narrative is created through dialogue between historians and the technology sector. Lithuania’s high-tech history will not only be told – it will be heard and preserved. This is the first time so many representatives from different fields have come together to build a single narrative about the evolution of innovation in Lithuania,” says Širvydaitė-Šliupienė.

The exhibition will cover five key areas: lasers, biotechnology, space technologies, robotics, and information technology, alongside the history of the country’s startup ecosystem. Each section is being developed in collaboration with scientists, associations, and companies from the respective fields, including Atrandi Biosciences, Ekspla, the Innovation Agency, Integrated Optics, the Lithuanian Laser Association, Light Conversion, NanoAvionics, Optoman, Telia, Teva, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Unicorns Lithuania, Vilnius University, and others.

Kristina Ananičienė, executive director of the Lithuanian Laser Association, notes that the exhibition will also mark the 60th anniversary of Lithuania’s first laser, ignited at Vilnius University in 1966, while highlighting the people, stories, and milestones behind the field.

“It is exciting that we now have the opportunity to present Lithuania’s technological development as a unified narrative. It allows us to see once again that we have much to be proud of and much to show. Lithuania’s laser sector is known worldwide today for its community, technologies, and achievements – but this did not happen overnight,” she says.

Each thematic section will begin with a timeline tracing the development of the field, followed by original artifacts – some displayed publicly for the first time. Key figures who shaped Lithuania’s technological identity will be highlighted, while artistic elements will offer a creative perspective on technology. Interactive features will allow visitors to experience how these technologies function up close.

Alongside corporate partners, well-known experts and researchers are contributing to the project, helping reconstruct historical processes and identify key objects. Among them are Algirdas Augustaitis, founder of Lithuanica X; Kristina Ananičienė; Dr. Ramūnas Kondratas; and space history researcher Saulius Lapienis.

“Together with the Museum of Ethnocosmology and the Innovation Agency, we hope to welcome guests of Lithuanian origin working in space technologies from the United States. The exhibition will also be accompanied by a publication featuring the memories of pioneers in high technologies, collected with the help of science communicator Goda Raibytė-Aleksa,” Širvydaitė-Šliupienė adds.

The National Museum of Lithuania emphasizes that this exhibition is only the first step in establishing a long-term direction for the history of science and technology. Beyond presenting the material, the museum plans to systematically collect, research, and disseminate Lithuania’s technological heritage.

The exhibition “Trajectory of the Future: The History of Lithuania’s High Technologies” will open this September at the House of Histories.