Arrabona - Múzeumi közlemények 35/1-2. (Győr, 1997)
Tanulmányok - Kubassek János: The Travels of János Xántus from Geographical Point of View
Affila Selmeczi Kovács János Xánfus and fhe Hungarian Nafional Museum This paper deals with the four-decades-long connections between the Hungarian National Museum and János Xántus (1825-1894), the founder of Hungarian ethnographical museology, on the occasion of the centenary of his death. The first group of materials on zoology (mammals, birds, insects) sent by Xántus from his expeditions in North America dates back to the middle of the 1850s. Later, in 1869-70, as a member of the Austrian-Hungarian expedition to South-East Asia, he enriched the museum with a significant collection on ethnography and natural history. During these expeditions he made drawings as well (Fig. 1-2). Thhe roughly 300 objects which he collected on the island of Borneo were of special interest. He displayed the ethnographic material from East Asia on a cuccessful exhibition in the National Museum in 1871 (Fig. 3). On the basis of this work, he was appointed to be the leader of the Department of Ethnography of the Hungarian National Museum on the 5th of March 1872. (This is the date of the foundation of the Hungarian Museum of Ethnography as well.) In the same year he lead a large-scale collection of ethnographic objects in Hungary. These 2500 pieces of folk art were exhibited with great succès, first in Pest and then on the Vienna World Fair in 1873. This important collection, however, got into the possession of the Museum of Applied Arts, opened in Budapest in 1 874. In the National Museum, Xántus was deprived of any opportunities to develop the ethnography vollection for one and a half decades. This situation improved only after 1886, when the experiences of his collection in Borneo proved to be highly instructive at the organising of the Museum für Völkerkunde in Vienna. Later, the Hungarian Society of Ethnography supported the development of the Department of Ethnography to become an independent museum. János Xántus prepared a plan for a museum of ethnography with a national scope of authority for collections and exhibitions, but his death prevented him from completing this project. The memorial exhibition organised by the Xántus János Múzeum in Győr played a tribute to both his work on natural history and on ethnography (Fig. 4-5). During the four decades of his activity, the Hungarian National Museum was enriched by over 1 75,000 objects from three continents. János Kubassek The Travels of János Xánfus from Geographical Poinf of View János Xántus was one of the most versatile Hungarian travellers of the 1 9th century. He became a geographer on his own, without any instituional education in this field, instructed by his reading and from knowledge gained during his travels in Europe, America and Asia. His person and work had already been exposed to a cross-fire of controversies and unfoundet accusations already in his life-time. After his death he was heavily criticized for his writings on North American Indians. Some of his critics even challenged his reliability. There is no denying the fact, however, that he set up an observatory on the Californian Peninsula, at Cape St.Lucas to study rise and fall of the sea and the ocean drifts. After 15 months' research work, he gave his inaugural lecture "Some ARRAB0NA MM 35/1-2.
