The huge number of posters (2,400) stored in the Lithuanian Theatre, Music and Cinema Museum is a very important part of Vilnius cultural heritage: it reflects the key aspects of the Lithuanian history and discloses the diversity of intercultural relationships of the time.

The 19th century Vilnius was a multicultural city with people of different nationalities living in it. At that time Lithuanian cultural history was very close to that of Poland and Russia. After the partition of the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795 most of Lithuania's territory was incorporated into the Russian Empire until 1918, when a sovereign state was re-established. In 1832, after the November Uprising of 1831, the University was closed by Tsar Nicholas I of Russia as a number of students and professors joined the anti–tsarist movement. The 19th century was also the period of the Lithuanian press ban. It was a ban on all Lithuanian publications printed in the Latin alphabet. The concept arose after the failed Uprising of 1863 and it took the form of an administrative order in 1864, which was not lifted until 1904.

This fact explains why till 1863 the posters announcing theatre events, concerts, magic performances and so on were in the Polish language or both in Polish and Russian and after the Uprising of 1863 all posters were printed in Russian. The content of the 19th century posters also discloses the broad variety of multicultural links existing at the time in the European area. Thanks to the works of great composers and dramaturgy of foreign playwrights, Vilnius had indirect cultural links to many European countries. At the time, the public of Vilnius admired the works of W. Shakespeare, N. Gogol, J. W. Goethe, F. Schiller, A. Fredro, K. M. Weber, G. A. Rossini, J. Offenbach, K. Kurpinski, P. Beaumarschais, G. Boccaccio, J.-B. Molière, A. Dumas, G. Verdi and many others. Moreover, the entertainment scene of Vilnius was largely enriched by guest companies and artists from Italy, Poland, Russia, Germany.

Project of Lithuanian Theatre, Music and Cinema Museum 19th Century POSTERS FROM VILNIUS MIRROR OF VILNIUS CULTURE is the part of National Project of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue (2008)