H. Bathó Edit – Gecse Annabella – Horváth László – Kaposvári Gyöngyi szerk.: Tisicum - A Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok Megyei Múzeumok Évkönyve 16. (2007)
The History of the István Györffy Museum of Karcag
MIKLÓS NAGY MOLNÁR THE HISTORY OF THE ISTVÁN GYÖRFFY MUSEUM OF KARCAG At the turn of the 19 and 20 century the idea of founding a museum in the Nagykunság region arose. This idea became ripe by 1906, when the Nagykun Museum Society came to existence. Parish priest András Joó played an important part in the organisation, but in 1913 he moved away from Karcag, and he entrusted the whole collection to a widow, called Balogh Ferencné Veres Rébék, who had helped him tremendously before. Although the collection of objects survived World War I, the aging lady could not take proper care of it. In 1920, the collection went intő the possession of the Ethnographical Museum. However, in 1926, the people of Karcag took back the pieces of the collection home. In 1940, the matériái of the museum was moved to the cellar of the building of the civil reading society next to the grammar school, where the objects were merely stored. During the war, vast majority of the collection was completely destroyed, and after the war, the re-organisation of the museum was given momentum. In December 1950, literary histórián László Péter settled down in Karcag, and he accelerated the process of re-organising the museum. And the institution was reborn then. On his proposal the museum was named after István Györffy. László Péter was followed by Sándor Szűcs, "the scholar of háromföld" as director of the museum in March 1952. In 1964, the director of the museum retired and Tibor Bellon, a freshly graduated ethnographer from the Lajos Kossuth University of Debrecen, was put in charge. He led the institution for decades. After the new building of the hospitál had been completed, the museum fínally was moved to the Bogdi-Papp mansion, and in 1973 the first permanent exhibition was opened: "The Nagykunság Chronicle". In 1984, on the 100 th anniversary of István Györffy 's birth, the second permanent exhibition was opened commemorating the person giving his name to the museum. As years passed by, the one-time mansion, the building of the museum came intő a bad state of preservation, therefore in 1998, the Council of Karcag Town had it renovated. In August 2000 the permanent exhibition "Nagykunság Chronicle" was replaced by a new one: "The Centuries of the Kuns." 146
