Boros István (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 3. (Budapest 1953)
Boros, I.: The exhibitions of the Hungarian National Museum Museum of Natural History
free standing glass table cases around its foot, prints of D a r w i rt's life, his books, and the papers of the best contestants of contemporary darwinism lets the visitor to get some insight into the historical background. The other nine wall cases and the tables of two phylogenetical trees around the room illustrate the theories of Darwin, both in its classical and in its modern, principally in the light of modern Soviet biological sciences valid, interpretation. The material, composed of original preparations, graphical illustrations prints, models, etc. is shown in the order of the following themes : Selection by Man (cases 1—3) ; Natural Selection (cases 4—5); Adaptation (case 6); The Descent of Man (case 7) ; Soviet Darwinism (case 8—9). The two genealogical trees of the animal kingdom and of Man are inserted among the wall cases. 8. The Phylogenetical Traveling Exhibition Our Museum composed this exhibition for the display of the evolution of life in the fall of 1949; and since then, as a travelling show in the country, it illustrates by 33 bipartite and easily tractable cases, by various objects, prints, drawings and paintings, everything which may answer to the layman the most discussed problems of evolution. It displays its material in four themes : I. The History of the Earth and of Life ; II. The Descent of Man ; III. The Role of Human Labour in the Course of Development ; IV. Man to Transform Nature. Every theme instructs subdivided into chapters, and, for the sake of reference, let the example of theme I stand here : 1. When Earth was yet a star ; 2. Layers as logs of the history of Earth ; 3. From excavation to exhibition ; 4. Finds determine the age of layers ; 5. Paleobiological finds testify on the places of ancient seas ; 6. The age of life and the ages of geology ; 7. The family tree of the lower animals; 8. The Paleozoic and its primitive forms of life; 9. The face of the Earth in the paleozoic age ; 10. Life in the paleozoic age ; 11—12. Characteristical beings of the Paleozoic ; 13. The Earth in the mesozoic ; 14. Life in the mesozoic ; 15. Ancient birds ; 16. Characteristic animals of the sea in the mesozoic ; 17. Characteristic land animals of the mesozoic ; 18. The flying dragons of the mesozoic ; 19. The development of life : from fishes to mammals ; 20. How vegetables developed ; 21—23. Characteristic beings of the cenozoic ; 24. A picture from the cenozoic ; 25. Earth in the cenozoic ; 26. Life in the cenozoic ; 27. Reconstruction of a sirenian of the ancient seas (the Tatabánya find) ; 28. The family tree of the mammals ; 29. The family tree of the Proboscidea ; 30. The phylogeny of the horse ; 31. The causes and history of ice ages ; 32—34. The characteristical big mammals of the ice age ; 35. Earth in the age of ancient man. We have recently started work on two new travelling shows: The History of Iron, and Fishes and Fisheries. Our further possibilities of development with regard to exhibitions are strictly connected by the building of the new Museum of Natural History. If our projects should come true in the near future, and there is every hope that it will be so, new exhibitions will also be opened on the ground of already partly complete plans, aided by our experiences gained during execution work of our recent exhibitionsExplanation of Plates Plate XX. Fig. 1. A part of the Exhibition of Invertebrate Animals ; the case of tunicates and sponges. Fig. 2. A part of the Exhibition of Organic Evolution. On the left the family tree of the animal kingdom ; on the right the cases showing the evolution of a fish to an amphibian, and the evolution of the heart, lungs and brain in vertebrate animals. Plate XXL Fig. 3. The corridor-room of the Africa Exhibition.
