Postai és Távközlési Múzeumi Alapítvány Évkönyve, 1999-2000

Beszámolók és tervek - Tartalmi összefoglaló angol nyelven

tion of technological diagrams, as well as a significant group of telephone history artifacts. The first double CD, made with Foundation support, called “The History of Hungarian Radio Broadcasting and the Catalogue of Radio Receivers” was published that same year. The Postal Museum increased its space by leasing a 240 m2 apartment on Andrassy Avenue, where comfortable staff offices and a quality document archive were established. Significant meetings over the course of the year included Nostalgia Tea Parties, scientific meetings to mark anniversaries in telecom history, Christmastime performances at the facility in Diósd, and meetings of the Scientific Society of Hungarian Philatelists (MAFITT) section affiliated with the Stamp Museum.

In 1998, the Foundation opened a new exhibition site, when the Postal Horn Gallery found a home in the attic of the Central Post Office in the town of Miskolc. Both museums commemorated the 150th anniversary of Hungary’s revolution and war of independence of 1848 with memorial exhibits. In December, a long-awaited ruling was issued by the director-general of MATÁV, Ruling 138/1998, which set forth the instructions on retaining telecom history memorabilia and documents that were valuable as relics. The Foundation gained a place on the “MATÁVNet, ” which gave it the opportunity to maintain the safety of its archives. MATÁV’s ruling was combined with the realisation of a dream when its Museum and Tele-Museum collections found new quarters in a building on Gyáli Avenue (in Budapest), where they could be both archived and presented. The final and greatest achievement of 1998 was the success of a bid for a grant to produce a CD entitled “The History of Hungarian Telegraphy. ”

A number of major events took place last year, too. A Tele-Gallery opened in the town of Pécs. Much of its material comes from local sources and includes unique items, such as a porcelain insulator from the Zsolnay China Factory established in the town in 1853, inscribed and signed by Vilmos Zsolnay, son of the founder, and dedicated to government minister Gábor Baross, a leader in telecom and industrial development. 1999 was also a time of great planning. Plans were made to expand the Stamp Museum, the MATÁV museum, to renovate the exhibit halls of the Postal Museum, and to expand a historical postal station at Balatonszemes that includes a memorial to postal workers, linespeople, and technicians who lost their lives in the line of duty.

Professional public opinion attending museum events has repeatedly said that the foundation was the caretaker of the soul of the community. I, myself witnessed an objective form of this in the Christmas card they sent out in 1993, an idea since repeated by many others. The front of the card was a drawing by the outstanding stamp designer József Vertei, in which the logos of the founders and the Foundation were woven together by pine branches. I think that the cultural performance of the staff is what won the admiration of public opinion, which recognised their ability to act as intermediaries between past and present generations, to break down intellectual barriers, and to do away with any gaps between them. While we tend to think that the role of an elderly person is to become older and wiser, and to exhibit character in the process, we have learned that the role of a museum is to become younger and wiser, and to exhibit character in the process. We have witnessed excellent signs of this rejuvenation and can say with certainty that the Foundation’s first decade was a success. I should like to wish the Foundation and all of you who are here today eternal rejuvenation, youth for life!

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