A Közlekedési Múzeum Évkönyve 11. 1996-1998 (1999)

IV. RÉSZ 407 - Előzetes közlemények és rövid tartalmi összefoglaló a Közlekedési Múzeum XI. Évkönyvéhez (magyar, angol, német nyelven) 429

Pál Hüttl Preliminary Announcements And Brief Summary Of Content To The 11

th Year-Book Of The Transport Museum The first Year-Book of the Transport Museum has been published in 1971 in honour of the 75th anniversary of establishment of the Museum. Dr. György Csanádi, member of the Academy, Minister for Transport and Posts wrote in the preface as follows: "The first Year-Book of the Museum received by the readers in the year of the 75th anniversary is a visiting card. It is the visiting card of a national institution, which preserves the valuable traditions of the past three-quarters of the century." Kálmán Katona Minister for Transport, Communication and Water Management writes in the "Congratulation" part of our jubelee 11th Year-Book: "I am proud and delighted to have the chance to greet the 100-year-old Transport Museum in its 11th Year-Book as a Minister. Knowing these 100 years I can declare with confidence that the founders made a good decision when they established the collection, which preservs becomingly the remembrances of the transport in Hungary. The successors, the museologists of the present not only care for the traditions and for the values of the oldest Hungarian technical Museum, but they are developing continuously this uniquely interesting and spectacular collection. That made it possible that at the centenary of its opening the Transport Museum is the flagship of the technical museology and the preservation of remembrances. The publication of the 11

th Year-Book has a special importance. The doors of the Museum have been opened for the public 100 years ago, on the 1

st May, 1899. The collection of the Museum was significant already by the time of the opening. The collection increased steadily during the years and till the outbreak of the 2

nd World War such an internationally accepted collection could be explored and demonstrated, that reflected truly the technics of transport of its age and the development of transport in Hungary. In this period lasting nearly a half of a century, the activity of the Museum was mainly the demonstration of a large-scale exhibition, which was always much frequented. Both financial resources and adequate staff failed for the scientific research and processing work, the public education, the preservation of stock and the restauration. Despite of all these, the Transport Museum performed an important mission even by that time in propagation of technical culture and preservation of material of great value in connection with transport history. After eliminating the devastations caused by the 2nd World War the Museum opened its doors in a new organizational form again on the 2nd April 1966. As a result of the zeal and vocation of the employees and the organisation of the research work of transport history, the number of scientific collections grew continuously. The permanent exhibitions and the aesthetic, periodic exhibitions organised in a growing number lured hundred thousand of visitors into the Museum. About these results report the Year-Books issued 2-3 yearly after the publication of the first Year-Book, i.e. in 1974, 1977, 1979, 1981, 1983, 1985, 1987, 1994, and 1996. In the introduction of this jubilee 11th Year-Book we commemorate the efforts at the turn of the century concerning establishment of museums and the activity of the Transport Museum in the last three years. In part I we provide a selection of the history of the collections of the Museum. In part II we publish papers concerning transport history and methodology. 437