Ziraat Bank Museum

The T.C. Ziraat Bank Museum, located in the Honor Hall of the Ziraat Bank General Directorate Building in the Ulus neighborhood of Ankara's Altındağ district, has been serving since 1981 as a museum displaying historical objects that show the development of the banking system in Turkey.

It is Turkey's first banking museum. It is situated in a building designed in 1929 by Italian architect Giulio Mongeri and is one of the structures of the First National Architectural Period.

The purpose of establishing the museum is to transmit the bank's accumulated knowledge and experience to the future. Many objects used in the banking system in the past are presented in a historic atmosphere in the museum, and some works by Republic-era painters from the bank's collection are exhibited.

History

The museum opened on 20 November 1981, the bank's 118th anniversary. The opening was carried out by Sadi Irmak, Chairman of the Advisory Council at the time.

After restoration work that began in 2017, the vault apartments on the basement floor were also incorporated into the museum. Thus, the expanded Ziraat Bank Museum reopened to visitors in its renovated form in November 2019.

Banking objects

The museum collection includes account and typewriters used in the General Directorate and branches, crystal ashtrays sets, old telephones, old handwritten bank door plaques, interest calculation machines, check writing machines, and objects such as letter scales.

Among the most valuable objects in the museum collection are the letters written and sealed by Mithat Pasha to the Grand Vizierate for the establishment of the Memleket Sandıkları that formed the basis of the bank, the regulation of the transfer from Memleket Sandıkları to Ziraat Bank, and account sheet No. 1 belonging to Mithat Pasha.

Painting collection

The oil painting titled “Otlak,” signed by Henry Hadfield Cubley and dated 1897, is the oldest painting in the collection. The large‑size oil painting “Gazi Mustafa Kemal Among the Farmers” created by painter Namık İsmail for the side entrance hall of the building, and the painting “Harman” specially made by painter İbrahim Çallı for the right wall of the interior salon, are valuable paintings in the museum collection. Other paintings include:

In İbrahim Safi's painting "Adana'dan" measuring 200x300 cm, women collecting cotton in Adana are depicted.

In Mehmet Ruhi Arel's oil painting "Dokumacı" (1926) measuring 140x160 cm, the moment of production of a weaver is depicted.

In Namık İsmail's painting "Mustafa Kemal Atatürk" (1928) measuring 150x100 cm, Atatürk is portrayed with his determined personality emphasized in front of the silhouette of Ankara Castle.

Namık İsmail's painting "Mithat Paşa" (1928) measuring 150x100 cm was made especially for the bank.

In the unsigned painting titled "Mithat Paşa's Rescue of the Poor People from the Moneylender's Hand," the benefit provided by the national treasury to the public is shown. In the work measuring 200x120 cm, the moneylender's body is depicted in the form of a snake.