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

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

in a "slightly" different way: in 1914, on the Carpathian battleground he became a Russian prisoner of war, and was transported across the Caspian Sea on a train for prisoners of war. He spent 8 years (1914-1922) in the Soviet Union, but he was fortunate: in the camps he was treated exceptionally well and he could even indulge in his hobbies: observing nature and collecting animals. The experiences of his "journeys" expanded his zoogeographical and evolutionary ideas. Unfortunately, however, a great part of his collected material was lost or damaged due to his travels and vicissitudes. After his homecoming he became a teacher in Pécs and he got his doctoral degree in 1925 at the University of Pécs. The years spent in the Soviet Union served him well after World War II: first, he became the secretary of the Hungarian Communist Party in Pécs, then the granger of county Baranya (1945-1947), councillor of foreign affairs (1948-1949), and finally he became director general of the Hungarian Natural History Museum until his retirement (1949-1960). After this, he retired to Pécs. As far as the museum is concerned, BOROS' most important merits were his untiring fight for science and culture in the hard years after the World War, and the reconstruction of the whole museum and the exhibitions after the destruction in 1956. He was a kind of a humanist, objective leader concentrating on real values, as it was told by many of his colleagues and employees - some of whom had different ideologies than his Marxism. Because the reptiles and amphibians always stood in the centre of his interest, the Herpetological Collection always reserved an exceptional place in his mind. As a university student in the time of MÉHELY, he visited the museum frequently; he remembered this in a paper in which he described how he caught a Central Asian Saw-scaled Viper (Echis carinatus) (BOROS 1969): "... I put my left leg on its head with soft pressure, and as I learnt it from Lajos Méhely in the National Museum hack in 1913,1 caught its neck with my left hand carefully." BOROS hastened the replacement of the material destroyed in 1956, in which he was helped by a young colleague, OLIVÉR GYÖRGY DELY. After the reconstruction of the building in Baross street (JABLONKAY 1996), the director general frequently enjoyed staying in the new herpetological research room on the fourth floor (Fig. 35). He acquired the famous animal painter, GÉZA VASTAGH'S (1866-1919) impressive painting "Landscape with lion" on permanent loan from the Hungarian National Gallery through his connections. In the following 40 years, this large-sized painting used to give a determinative impression everybody who entered DELY'S room. After his death, this painting was restored and now hangs on the wall in the office of the deputy director general (Baross street, 1

st floor). The leadership of the Herpetological Collection was taken over by DELY after FEJÉRVÁRYNÉ's dismission in 1951. OLIVÉR GYÖRGY DELY ( 1927-2003) (Fig. 36) was born in Nagyszalonta (= Salonta, now in Romania) and graduated in museology at the University of Budapest in 1950. After finishing the university he was directed as a trainee with scholarship to the János Xántus Museum in Győr for a short time by the Hungarian Centre for Museums and Monuments. Subsequently, in 1951 he was employed in the Department of Zoology of the Hungarian Natural History Museum in the Herpetological Collection where he worked until his retirement, and where he spent much of his time until his death.