Matskási István (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 100. (Budapest 2008)

Korsós, Z.: History of the Herpetological Collection of the Hungarian Natural History Museum

persons, ISTVÁN BOROS director general and OLIVÉR GYÖRGY DELY, the last classic museum herpetologist of the collection. They, with the help of international donations, of many enthusiastic Hungarian zoologist collectors, and with the assistance of ERZSÉBET ŐRY, rebuilt the Herpetological Collection from nil to the size of 15,000 specimens reached by the end of DELY'S life in 2003. During DELY'S activity, the collection became a center for Hungarian herpetological research, many visiting scientists were recurring guests, two international conferences were organised in Budapest, and the scientific synopses of the Hungarian herpetofauna were published. We believe that with this period the traditional, collection- and morphology-based museum herpetology came to an end, and opened the gate to the new style investigations focusing on population biology and nature conservation of amphibians and reptiles. With 48 figures. Keywords - Amphibians, reptiles, museology, Budapest, Hungary, 1956, acquisitions. THE BEGINNING The very beginning of the herpetological - i.e. collecting and studying amphibians (Amphibia) and reptiles (Reptilia) - collection of the Hungarian Natural History Museum (HNHM) cannot easily be determined. These vertebrate animals - although being not really popular among the general public - have always yielded a small, but exciting and not dismissable part of natural sciences. In the first few decades the Hungarian Natural History Museum - which was established in 1802 (KORSÓS & HORVÁTH 1996, MATSKÁSI 2002) - concentrated mainly on the "curiosities" (animals, plants and minerals), as many other similar institutes did. The first zoological items were given to the museum most probably around 1807-1808: a one-eyed pig preserved in alcohol, a dry stuffed heron, and a raven's egg (PAPP 1992). In these times, the work of the museum's first "curator" (namely LAJOS TEHEL (1769-1816) who got his job in 1810) was nothing more than the organisation of donations - like the aforementioned pig, heron and egg. The first scientific zoological material - containing butterflies and beetles also - was donated to the museum in his time, in 1811, in the form of the collection of a lady, ANNA JORDÁN from Nagyszombat (through the purchase by FERENC STIPSICS, Canon of Esztergom, see FRIVALDSZKY 1880, HORVÁTH 1902). We do not know anything more about her. TEHEL had two volunteer assistants, one of whom was PÁL JÁNOS JÁNY, who later became a regular employee and the keeper of the zoological collection. TEHEL - who was considered a mineralogist by his contemporaries - established the first exhibition of the museum in 1810, and later, in 1815, he compiled the plan for another one, which he was unable to accomplish, because he died at the early age of 47 in 1816 (PAPP 1992). PÁL JÁNOS JÁNY (?-1834), the first "Curator Camerae Zoologicae" - keeper of the zoological collections - was an employee of the museum between 1814 and 1822. In their (TEHEL'S andJÁNY's) time, in 1815 the items of the National Museum were organised in a determined order (ANONYMOUS 1815):