Savaria - A Vas Megyei Múzeumok Értesítője 32/2. (2009) (Szombathely, 2009)
VÍG Károly & BALOGH Lajos: A SZOMBATHELYI SAVARIA MÚZEUM TERMÉSZETTUDOMÁNYI TÁRÁNAK TÖRTÉNETE
A SZOMBATHELYI SAVARIA MÚZEUM TERMÉSZETTUDOMÁNYI TÁRÁNAK TÖRTÉNETE VÍG Károly & BALOGH Lajos Savaria Múzeum, Természettudományi Tár H-9700 Szombathely, Kisfaludy Sándor u. 9., Hungary E-mail: nathist@savariamuseum.hu HISTORY OF THE SZOMBATHELY SAVARIA MUSEUM NATURAL HISTORY DEPARTMENT Since its creation, the Vas County Museum, later Savaria Museum natural history/natural science department/collection has been one of the most important scientific institutions for the presentation of the flora, fauna and geology of Western Hungary. This was particularly the case before the establishment of the appropriate departments in Sopron University and later Szombathely College. In contrast with the great institutions it has always remained a small workshop, but from time to time has persistently fought to fulfil its all-purpose calling as a museum: which is embodied in the field of collection, preservation, scientific treatment and educational presentation of natural history materials. Over the course of a century, this intellectual workshop has provided a home for botanists, zoologists and palaeontologists, who in numerous cases were also pioneers in nature protection movements on a local, but also on a national scale. In several periods, the gallery has also carried out intensive scientific organisation activities, in the times of Gyula GÁYER in the first half of the 20 th century, Ernő HORVÁTH in the second, and then Károly VIG. Many participatory research programs linked with their names have been the most effective periods for investigating the natural science of the region. During these, numerous researchers worked here, and not only from this region, who enriched our institution with their collections and their associated intellectual activities, as well as the treasury of artefacts and scholarship in Vas County and Western Hungary. Just as worthy of respect are the diligent activities of those performing small museological tasks, the results of which always provide a continuous and secure background to operations. The determinative personalities and periods of the gallery history may be summarised as follows. In 1908, the ornithologist István CHERNÉL founded the Vas County Museum Natural History Department in Szombathely, laying a foundation for the zoology collection with his own bird material, and the botanical collection with the herbarium of botanist Antal WAISBECKER, and also established the museum's first natural science exhibition. 1923-1944: After the early death of CHERNÉL the department was led by outstanding representatives of domestic and international scholarship, the palaeontologist László BENDEFY (BENDA), who unearthed the Baltavár prehistoric fossil finds, and the botanist Gyula GÁYER, who portrayed the Praenoricum flora region. The museological and nature protection work of Arnold PÁKAY (PAUER) are important. 1954-1989: The longest period in the life of the department was represented by the work of palaeobotanist Ernő HORVÁTH, who established the significant, Pannonian period paleobotanical collection, and for a large section of the time he embodied natural science museology in his own person. During the predominant, determinative part of the period extending from the 1990s till the present day, the department led by the leaf-beetle specialist, entomologist Károly VIG has been (part of) one of the most significant regional natural science museum institutions in Hungary. The herbarium (recent and fossil) is the largest in Hungary after the Hungarian Natural Science Museum, but the insect collection is also very significant and under intensive development. Since 2008, the Natural History Collection, under the leadership of the plant invasion researcher, botanist Lajos BALOGH, with four staff members - two museologists and two preparators - has been performing professional museology duties extending across the Western Transdanubia region.
