In Lithuanian history, the dog has long been in the shadows – a silent companion to eternity, an assistant in hunting, a zealous guardian of the yard. However, this time it steps into the foreground. The exhibition “History Wags Its Tail”, opening on April 30 at the History House of the National Museum of Lithuania, offers a glimpse into the thousands of years of human-dog connection and sees the dog as a full-fledged historical figure.
We talk to its curators, archaeologists from the National Museum of Lithuania, Dr. Povilas Blaževičius and Sigita Mikšaite, about why dogs deserve a museum, how they differ from cats, and how the exhibition can cure fear of dogs and fears in general.
Where did your journey into the world of dogs begin – from your love for four-legged friends or from bookshelves and bones?
Povilas Blazevicius (PB): This is the classic question that is always the hardest to answer. It all started seven years ago with research funded by the Lithuanian Research Council, which turned into two books. One of them is about medieval and modern dogs. But that material usually remains locked away between academic covers. I have always wanted science to go public, and an exhibition is one of the best ways to do that.
For a long time, dogs were just a background in history. Why did you decide to bring them to the forefront?
PS: Like, for example, children, pets were not interesting to anyone for a long time. People have been interested in children since the beginning of feminism, when history saw a woman, and then realized that children were also with her, and then broader studies of the history of everyday life appear. Then everything else that surrounds a person also appears. But in Lithuania, such a detailed study is one of the first, there were only smaller ones.
So what's different about this exhibition? Why is it worth coming - even if you don't have a dog?
PS: Maybe because here visitors will find not only classic museum exhibits. We have objects from the police, the army, from people's homes that tell the story of childhood - toys, books, family albums. Some exhibits have not yet had time to become "historical", are not yet stored in museums. I wanted not to create another "academic exhibition", but to make it lively, unexpected, and diverse. And that's how it turned out.
Sigita Mikšaite (SM): At first, I was scared that we had stepped outside the framework of an academic exhibition, there was no longer a chronological narrative that is typical for museums, but it was worth experimenting. This is not an exhibition that neatly arranges dates on shelves. This is a story told through the dog's footsteps, smell, even barking. The visitor creates his own path, and icing sugar sprinkles everything with interactive activities. This will not be an exhibition where you just walk around the exhibition and caress the objects in the display cases with your eyes - here you will be able to smell, climb into the enclosure, and see the world through the eyes of a dog. Our general sponsor KIKA also contributed to the educational solutions - their experience and daily work with animals helped us better understand the world of dogs.
PS: I would say – it's a huge puzzle of the dog's history. And we just show some of the bright fragments of it. Some – we just color in. And we say: look, how much has not been told yet. In fact, each theme of the exhibition deserves a separate study and a separate exhibition.
The exhibition is about dogs. But somewhere along the way, a cat also runs past. How did it slip into the exhibition?
PS: It can be said that one of the curators was not a dog lover at the beginning of her work.
YE: Yes, life turned out like this. I used to be a dog lover – but during an archaeological expedition, one dog, with whom I had been playing for three days, bit me badly. Since then, I have been sincerely afraid of them. Organizing the exhibition has become a kind of therapy – I had to read about dog psychology, learn how they feel and react. And now I look at them differently – with respect, even tenderness.
PS: A dog, like a person, has its own history, its own moods, sometimes it gets scared, then it bites. Their diversity is very interesting. It's like with people - one person beat you up, but you can't write off the entire society. We aim to show through the exhibition how diverse these dogs are, and if you meet one bad one, not all of them are bad, and throughout their entire coexistence with humans they have done a lot of very good things, sacrificing themselves recklessly, crawling under tanks, sniffing gas.
PS: And the cats… They came on their own. As always. No one invited them, but here they are.
YE: As in history, quietly, but constantly present. And in the exhibition too – we let them simply pass by, leave their mark. Because they have been with humans since the Stone Age, only their image has changed little throughout history. They lived as they wanted, from the Stone Age to the present, and their physical appearance has not changed, despite the fact that they were domesticated.
PS: If you can call it domestication, they allowed themselves to be taken care of.
YE: In any case, they have always been there. The cat is everywhere in history. If we have a brick with dog footprints, it will also have a cat's. She should have left her footprint here, by all means, but it turned out that more came running after them - this will be a fine line: will the visitor notice it first, and when they do, will they start looking.
When does the story of man and dog begin? And has it always been so gentle?
PS: In the Stone Age. Although the exact dates are still being researched, we can say for sure that five thousand years ago people were already hunting with dogs.
YE: Although it is a non-Lithuanian case, I am always very surprised that they not only hunted, but also looked after them. We have data from foreign scientific colleagues, which shows that the dog had a broken leg, but it survived - which means it was being cared for. At a time when people were not always lucky enough to survive.
PS: On the other hand, at that time, animals could also serve as a "food pantry". They were fed, but when they were hungry, they were eaten. Like a rooster - a clock, a clock, but look, it got tired - and into the soup. Here is the pragmatic life of those people, it is difficult for us to understand and appreciate it, but dogs were very important to those oldest people, about whom we know so little. And after the Stone Age, dogs disappear somewhere - at least in archaeology. Only around the tenth century do they reappear in graves. And not only of princes. They were buried with women and children. These are not just symbols - they are companions to the afterlife.
YE: And this is visible in mythology. A four-legged dog, between whose ears you can see death… If you see it – bad. And this attitude remained in Lithuania for a very long time – even in Christian times. Maybe that is why we do not have portraits of dogs like in the West. For us, a dog was a mystical, not a manorial attribute.
Is it true that dogs have been both heroes and victims, and even… musical instruments?
PS: It was like that. One of the saddest discoveries is the use of dog skin for drums and bagpipes. But maybe we should leave this thing in the background of the exhibition – because not everyone looks at history the way archaeologists do. For us it is reality, for others it is a shock.
YE: I personally remember the partisan dog very well. Small, unremarkable, but we have a photo of it. It was able to recognize: when strangers were coming – it barked, when its own people were coming – it was silent. And once it even ran out onto the road and did not let the partisans go, because there was an ambush in the farmstead. And this is not a myth. We have several such testimonies.
PS: A dog is like a person. It has a character, moods, and sometimes even better judgment. And we want to show this at the exhibition – a dog is not a thing, but a personality.
What exhibits at the exhibition might surprise even dog lovers?
PS: Let's start with the fact that for the first time, authentic dog skeletons are being exhibited - they were excavated, stored in boxes, but never assembled and displayed. Now visitors will be able to see and understand how big they were, how different they were.
YE: We also have a painting of Čiurlionis with his sister's puppy Lemoris, painted in a painting next to the saint. The family didn't even know he painted it. Also, a dog puppet created by the famous puppet master Stasys Ušinskas. And, of course, the equipment of the Special Operations Forces dogs, used in real missions, including in Afghanistan.
PS: And then there are toys, works of art, dog books, and posters featuring a medieval dog wagging its tail from a Gothic coquette, playfully nicknamed by us as the Monster Dog. He is depicted in the coquette with a spiked collar. What does this mean? Is it protection from wolves? But why? Is it because he hunted them himself, or protected sheep from wolves? The fact that he himself is a fighter. Maybe that is why he will eat away all the visitors' fears at the end of the exhibition.
YE: Yes, visitors will be able to write down their fear and symbolically put it in the dog's mouth. Because a dog is not only a friend or a guard. Sometimes it also becomes our psychologist.
What did dogs actually do throughout our history – did they always just wag their tails?
PS: Dogs have never been just “tools”. But their function depended greatly on the era. If it was peacetime, the dog would guard the yard or play with children. If it was war, it would become a soldier’s assistant: searching for the wounded, carrying explosives, protecting against gas. History has thrown dogs around like people – along with all the crises and changes.
YE: And in the 20th century, a turning point. The dog becomes a policeman, a border guard, a therapist, a reading buddy for children. Its role is expanded to a social partner. And this shows that it has not only adapted, it has changed us.
PS: By the way, the implementation of this exhibition would not have been so comprehensive without the contribution of our general sponsor, the company KIKA. They not only generously supported the project, but also shared their knowledge about animal behavior, care, and helped us better understand what animals live in today. This was a valuable and very inspiring partnership for us, museum professionals.
Can we say that a dog not only accompanies us, but also reflects us?
PS: Yes, a dog is a reflection. It resembles its owner. Even physically. Their emotions, behavior, loyalty... They are like litmus paper - they show what we really are. And this, by the way, distinguishes a dog from a cat. Cats have always been around - since the Stone Age, but they haven't changed. They are the same - independent, free. They allow us to take care of them, but no more.
YE: But they also deserve their footprints in history. They pass by in the exhibition, appear unexpectedly. Some in photographs, others among the exhibits. They remind us that they were, are, and will be – like a shadow next to a person.
So this exhibition can be considered our tribute to dogs. If they could, and as far as I know they will, walk around the exhibition themselves, what would they say?
YE: That "Finally! We deserve to be in a museum" - as full-fledged historical figures.
PS: And they would probably be proud of their ancestors' bravery, loyalty, campaigns, and sacrifice. And how much their lives have changed now - conditions, treatment, and respect have improved. Although not everywhere yet.
YE: Even if not everyone has improved, at least people have started to pay attention that things should improve. Publicity helps - and exhibitions are very important for this, as are social welfare organizations that save animals. Because there are still people who live in their own perception of the times.
PS: Also, remember that dogs have short lives. For dogs, 4 or 5 thousand years of history is 50 thousand years of history compared to humans, because they live 10 years in our years. If you are raising a dog, you need to assess your responsibility: what is just a day for us is almost a month for them.
Spoken by Živilė Stadalytė (Lithuanian National Museum).
The exhibition "History Wags Its Tail" of the National Museum of Lithuania, implemented together with the general sponsor KIKA, opens on April 2025, 30 and will be open until October 26 at the House of History, T. Kosciuškos g. 3, Vilnius. The exhibition "History Wags Its Tail" will be accompanied by a diverse program of events: excursions, creative workshops, yoga with puppies, a scientific conference, once a month the exhibition will be open to visitors with their pets, and on August 23, the upcoming International Dog Day will be celebrated.
