Postai és Távközlési Múzeumi Alapítvány Évkönyve, 1999-2000
Beszámolók és tervek - Tartalmi összefoglaló angol nyelven
Mrs. János Solymosi Collections Owned by the Stamp Museum The aspect of human nature that drives people to collect things has saved innumerable treasures for posterity, a significant portion of which are now in museums. One of today’s most popular collectors’ items is the stamp, which shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, for these minute works of graphic art present us with both the past and the present of our world’s cultural heritage, either in themselves or in the reproductions they bear. The Stamp Museum is a public collection unique in Europe, since it presents not only stamps, but also the artifacts and documents that are connected to them. Data on the collections of the Stamp Museum, which celebrates its 70th birthday in the year we all mark the millennium of Hungary’s foundation as a nation, were as follows as of 1 January 2000: The first moves to establish a Stamp Museum date from the late 1910s. The first actual display of stamps organised by the museum was opened to the public on 28 April 1930 in a post office building in the Buda section of Budapest designed by University of Technology Professor Gyula Sándy. Within a few years time, a sudden growth in the number of stamps issued rendered the building too small to hold them, so a new and larger home was sought. A Post Office building designed by Gyula Rimanóci and built at the end of the 1930s in the Erzsébetváros section of Budapest (75-81, Dob Street) was designed with the idea of accommodating the Stamp Museum on its mezzanine, and the museum has been there ever since 23 November 1940. The renovations and updates completed since that time, however, were unable to increase the space. Meanwhile, the collection nearly doubled, so by today the enlargement can no longer be postponed. The international collection of the Stamp Museum began with stamps that have been coming from the member nations of the Universal Postal Union since 1878, as part of a reciprocal exchange programme. In the first third of the 20th century the collection was enhanced through major purchases by the Hungarian Post Office, as well as through donations. The Hungarian collection became complete when, between 1915 and 1922, the Hungarian Post Office purchased a uniquely rich collection from commercial counsellor Frigyes Mirkó Poppovits, an internationally recognised philatelist. It was this collection that provided the museum with unmatched items for its classic Hungarian collection. The museum library was founded by Ferenc Vejtey, who had collected a philatelic library over many long decades, which he was kind enough to donate to the museum. The archive for official and unofficial documents came into being thanks to Elemér Czakó, author of many works on Hungarian stamps. The stamps that continue to come from the members of the International Postal Union as well as the stamps and documents of the Hungarian Postal Service Corporation are Hungarian stamps International stamps Miscellaneous collection Library 9,962,761 units 1,438,178 units 1,162,028 units 4,495 units 233
