Veres László - Viga Gyula szerk.: A Herman Ottó Múzeum műkincsei (Miskolc, 1999)

A HERMAN OTTÓ MÚZEUM 1899-1999

tion of fine arts donating it a painted ceiling board (1735) and a pulpit (1735) that became redundant after the restoration of the local church. The numismatic collection got a rich collection of Antique and Medieval coins. At the end of 1903 the museum owned already 11 157 objects. The Borsod-Miskolc Museum became a real museum from 1907. It was the year when three basic museum activities were integrated: collecting, scientific publishing and exhibiting. The institution had to attain three main goals. Miskolc is the craddle of Palaeolithic research in Hungary. In 1891 in the course of digging a foundation for a house, three stone tools were discovered. Ottó Herman, the widely famous scientist and ethnographer identified them as the work tools of the prehistoric man. His identification provoked a great discussion. The musem of Miskolc considered it to be its primary task to solve the discussion and thus, it supported by all means the investigation of the caves in Bükk Mountains. The second task was the spread of the ethnographic research having in mind a foundation of an ethnographic museum. As a third task it was considered to be very important to collect the flora and fauna of comitat Borsod. Up to 1913 the museum was supplied by the Association for Public Culture and Museum. At the end of 1913 the owner of the museum became the comitat and the town of Miskolc. In the period between the two World Wars among the goals decided earlier only the program of palaeolithic research continued to function. The development of the numismatic collection and the saving of church treasures and transporting them to museum got a priority. The numismatic collection acquired a great number of badges, awards and emergency money of the First World War. The famous Gothic iron gate from Rudabánya or the Gothic cup from Diósgyőr have been also acquired at that time. In 1941 the museum owned already 73 506 objects. The museum of Miskolc and comitat Borsod survived the Second World War without significant losses. This is the merit of Andor Leszih, the only paid employee of the museum, who was in charge for the museum between 1904 and 1949. The public collection was nationalised at the end of 1949 and from that time it was supervised by the Ministry of Culture. In 1953 it was renamed and since that time has been called Herman Ottó Museum. Up to the 1960s only a few specialists were employed. Their task was to reinventory the collection and to collect the objects and documents representing the period of socialism and to conduct the archaeological rescue excavations. In the course