Postai és Távközlési Múzeumi Alapítvány Évkönyve, 1999-2000
Beszámolók és tervek - Tartalmi összefoglaló angol nyelven
Tamás Pásztory, PhD The Foundation of the Postal and Telecommunication Museum: a 10 Year Overview1 On reading the envelope containing this year’s invitation, you will have noted that the Foundation of the Postal and Telecommunication Museum is celebrating its 10th anniversary as Hungary advances into its 1,000th year of nationhood. The very first assembly of the original Magyar tribes who conquered the land was held right here, on the open plains. A new era for the Postal Museum also began on this site, with a series of exhibitions that opened in 1987, in the community centre moved here from the town of Tömörkény. The fully operational post office building, with its tum-of-the-century interior, was an example of applied museology. The power of the human factor that, sadly enough, had never been elaborated before in exhibition history, has finally come into focus, within the room that displays the memorabilia of women post office managers. This display is designed to portray the significant role they played in enhancing the prestige enjoyed by the postal service, both on a personal level, and in the world at large. This is one of the reasons we have chosen Opusztaszer as the venue for our celebration. The other is that this is the starting point of a display that is going to tour the country for an entire year. It was put together with the support of the Office of the Government Commissioner for the Hungarian Millennium, and is intended to recreate the 1,000 years of Hungary’s history as a nation by presenting telecommunication artifacts that reflect progress through history. Compared to the millennia of history itself, or even to a single century, ten years is not a very long time. When celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Foundation of the Postal and Telecommunication Museum we need to remember that while the Foundation may be young, the two museums go back to a much earlier time. The decision to establish a Postal and Telegraphic Museum was taken 110 years ago, in 1890, by Minister of Communications Gábor Baross, and the Stamp Museum was established in 1930, exactly 70 years ago. They say that war years count doubly, so it really would be fairer to mark up the foundation to two times ten years, since they certainly were years of struggle. In early January of 1990, the Foundation of the Postal and Telecommunication Museum moved out of the certain and secure environment of the postal hierarchy and became independent, which also distanced it from the three founders, almost to the periphery. This pressured the museums into a new way of life, involving conscious and constant adjustment to the economic, legal, social, and cultural environment of a world that itself was in a continuous state of flux. Our museums had to set a course that proved their significance time and again; to show that by preserving and presenting the artifacts that have characterised the profession over the course of history, they were reminding present-day people of an intellectual continuity with a long-standing and diverse profession. In a society dreaming of modernisation, 1 Address delivered to the Foundation’s anniversary celebration at Opusztaszer on 16 August 2000. 225
