Fejős Zoltán (szerk.): A Néprajzi Múzeum gyűjteményei (Budapest, 2000)
THE COLLECTIONS OF THE MUSEUM OF ETHNOGRAPHY OF BUDAPEST - Summary
1052 Függelék 3) The future of the collection: what areas of the collection need developing; what are the possibilities and limitations of further acquisition; in what way is the collection closed or open in nature (i.e. whether it is still possible to increase the collection); how well-suited is the collection to document current public culture; and finally what are the interconnections with the other collections of the Museum? The chapters of the volume result from an analysis of the sources relating to the collections, including the acquisition documentation and the archival materials of the Museum, as well as the relevant literature. The collections are examined based on the current classification of the material. The current system was created in 1947 when the Museum of Ethnography became independent, there has been very little change in the subdivisions of the collections since then. Organizationally, the individual collections are under the purview of three departments. The first section of the volume presents the collections of the Hungarian Department, which in addition to Hungarian ethnographic objects also contains the materials collected among the nationalities living in Hungary prior to the First World War. The Hungarian Department has been subdivided according to thematic principles or types of materials. The second section of the volume discusses the collections of the International Department which are curated by continent, while the third one deals with the materials stored in the Ethnological Archives. Naturally, the authors also examine the underlying principles of earlier classifications of the material, and the characteristics and methods of acquisition of material prior to 1947, which took place under circumstances very different from today. The essays primarily throw light upon and analyse the historical processes whereby this material found its way to the Museum - in its characteristic composition, and with its strengths and weaknesses - and continues to be preserved and augmented by objects, images, sound and film and how as a result of these processes it became one of the most important, in some respects the most important, source of information for Hungarian ethnography. Naturally, this undertaking is not without precursors. First, it follows a history of ideas preoccupation which has been prevalent in Hungary for a long time resulting in important overviews and analyses of the history of the Museum of Ethnography too. Despite this significant interest there still are major areas to be uncovered in the history of this most significant museum collection of Hungarian ethnography. The present volume wishes to contribute to this history by raising new or so far incompletely explored questions, and by bringing a fresh approach to them. It does not do what a volume entided The Hungarian Collections of the Museum of Ethnography would have done, the latter was to appear - but eventually did not - for the 100th anniversary of the museum. That volume would have given a classification and analysis of the material, but not a history of how the collections of the Museum have come about, changed and what their characteristics were. Second, besides the above concerns this volume attempts to call attention to the interconnections of museum practice with the wider context - thus joining the newer trends of international research, the approaches that have been labelled the “new museology.” This interpretative framework indicates the wider scientific context into which this undertaking fits regarding both its starting-point and its content, even if the present volume can only be regarded as the first step in a direction which is becoming more and more accepted in current international research. Thus this handbook joins these two trends of thought, of which the introductory essay gives a critical overview. At the same time the volume also serves practical purposes. It will present in greater detail than ever before the material of the Museum, its archival documents recorded in a variety of media according to collections. The comprehensive and unified bibliography provides the most exhaustive bibliography to date of the publications relating to the institution or documenting the museum’s materials. Organisational changes, changes in the status of the institution, and the changing venues of the Museum are shown in a chronology (Appendix 2). Separate appendices bring together all of the Museum’s publications to date (Appendix 5), its exhibitions (Appendices 6-10) - a glimpse of some of which can also be seen in photographs -, as well as a list of the curators who have been caring for the various collections (Appendix 4). Aside from the theoretical and scientific significance of the volume these features - as befits a handbook - wish to render it more useful to the reader and to aid future research.
