Matskási István (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 94. (Budapest 2002)

Matskási, I.: Bicentenary of the Hungarian Natural History Museum

the reform period (the second quarter of the 19th century), thanks to donations and purchases, the collections started growing relatively fast. The national library, the art, history, archaeology, and natural history collections were growing in number so rapidly that certain sections had to be moved more than once. In 1836, MIHÁLY POLLACK, the renowned architect of the time, whose buildings form an organic part of Budapest as we know it today, was commissioned with designing the building of the National Museum. The stately edifice of the National Museum was completed, and waiting to be occupied, in 1847. At this time, the mineral and rock collection counted as many as 13,000, the zoological collection more than 35,000 specimens. 1869 was the year when the first data regarding the number of visitors were preserved; nearly 65,000 visitors looked up the entire institution (with history and art collections included). Owing to the diversity of the ever-expanding material, the Camera Naturae had to be made independent of the National Museum; this was the reason why independent zoological, mineralogical and palaeontological, and botanical departments came about in 1870. Thanks to independence, more and more specialists joined the departments and growth started gaining impetus. Since the upcoming chapters will elaborate on the scientific history of individual departments at a greater length, here and now we would just like to highlight some remarkable events and touch on just a few milestones further down the bumpy road. Economic prosperity and unsuppressed national feelings in the last decades of thel9th century further enhanced citizens' readiness to make donations as well as made high-scale collecting tours possible (Africa, Asia); nor should we lose sight of some remarkable state purchases that were made.. At the turn of the century the descriptions of materials LAJOS BÍRÓ had collected in New Guinea came out one after the other, proving that the interest researchers took in natural sciences reached far beyond the Carpathian Basin and even Eurasia. Back then the territory of Hungary was three times as big as today and much richer in natural resources. The country was making preparations for celebrating the Hungarian Conquest (the Magyars' arrival in the Carpathian Basin), large-scale construction work was in progress all over the country, the capital saw a monumental exhibition in the making, and some new museums were founded. Natural history collections included almost 1 million items at that time. The material of the Natural History Museum took a century to become one of the richest collections of Austria-Hungary, one of the leading European powers. The crowdedness of collections, the lack of space made it imperative to move certain sections of the National Museum to a new location. Not unlike several other big national museums of the world, ours were also split up into specialised sections