Cseri Miklós, Füzes Endre (szerk.): Ház és ember, A Szabadtéri Néprajzi Múzeum évkönyve 15. (Tanulmányok Füzes Endre 70. születésnapja alkalmából. Szentendre, Szabadtéri Néprajzi Múzeum, 2002)
IFJ. KODOLÁNYI JÁNOS: Múzeumi néprajzi gyűjteményeink fejlesztése
János Kodolányi Jr. DEVELOPING OF THE ETHNOGRAPHIC COLLECTIONS OF MUSEUMS The interest for collecting in the museums founded in the 19 th century turned to the ethnography only when this claimed to be a discipline. Existing collections required the establishing of an Ethnography Department in the Hungarian National Museum. At this time there were already several country museums, which housed ethnographic collections. János XANTUS, the first director of the Museum of Ethnography considered it as his most important task, to organise a museum, which should receive and display the Hungarian collections. Upon his suggestion, objects of handicraft in a wide sense were collected. The book of Zsigmond BÁTKY, "Guidelines for the Organisation of Ethnographic Museums" published in 1906 served as real guideline for the collection of ethnographic objects for the museums during decades. Only few museums attached the development of their collection to scientific research. The collection and treatment of ethnographic objects after the Second World War paid more attention as ever before to establish the age of the objects and made efforts to reveal the circumstances of the production and use of the objects. The time arrived when our museums tried to collect objects provided with date of year. The researchers showed increasing interest in the social background. Sociology became important and the view with regard to the Hungarian village society has changed. The Ethnographic Museum created a team to research Tiszaigar to get an overall picture. Besides researching, objects were collected and exhibited. The work, however, has never been completed, the monograph has never been published. The first open-air museum was founded in 1932 in Balassagyarmat. One after the other was created after the Second World War: in Zalaegerszeg, Szombathely, Nyiregyháza-Sóstó, Ópusztaszer end Szenna. Organisation and construction of the Open-Air Museum in Szentendre had begun. The furnishing of the interiors was collected at the same time. In the meantime, many museums were opened in monuments of vernacular architecture. It was typical for the collections and developments that the objects of the traditional culture were considered as most important. Research tried to reach back as far as the 19 th century, or even farther, if possible. The efforts manifest in the Ethnographic Atlas intended to recall and to present the period around 1910 based on the collected data. The big collective efforts after the Second World War in 1948 and the so-called migration researches among the Székely, who came from Bukovina, delivered few objects. The collection work, however, of smaller "teams" resulted in a growth of the collections. The collection work of Klára CSILLÉRY and Judit M OR VA Y in Bodony, of Edit FÉL and Tamás HOFER in Átány, of Judit MORVAY and Mária MOLNÁR in Szatmár contributed not only to the enrichment of the collections but they produced a renewal of the methods. The collecting work for the needs of the Open-Air Museum in Szentendre went on uninterruptedly. There is an effort in the organisation and development of the ethnographic collections of museums to collect, to preserve, to treat and to present the tools, appliances and objects of a peasant culture, which is interpreted as folk culture. XANTUS opened the gate for the professions, the Guidelines called for attention highlighting the objects of the peasant lifestyle. Approaching the 20 th century and in the 20 th century, more and more factory products appear and folk costumes disappear. In the process of the continuous and accelerating changes we have reached the point where traditional folk culture and its objects are rarely met. More and more people are of the opinion that ethnography is forced to take an other direction. There is no more possibility to develop the collections and it is even less possible to regard it as the organic continuation of the past. The Hungarian museum collections became big by following the traditional ways from the second half of the 19 th century. Their most important task is today to care for the completion of the developed collections, to add there whatever is still necessary, although the occasion for purchasing has to be waited for. As long as we talk about ethnographic collections, we cannot develop them into something else.
