Postai és Távközlési Múzeumi Alapítvány Évkönyve, 2001
Tartalmi összefoglaló angol nyelven
has made such designs proves that people beyond our borders place a high value on beautiful graphic designs and robust stamp compositions. His orders from abroad acclaim not only Varga’s personal oeuvre, but also enhance the reputation of the Hungarian Postal Service Corporation, and the high standards of Hungarian philatelic art. Alexandra Halász: Comments from the Guest Book of an Itinerant Exhibition In August 2000 the Foundation of the Postal and Telecommunication Museum put together an itinerant exhibition, which travelled the country. It was called 1,000 Years of Hungary as a Nation, Reflected in Telecommunications, and for the next year it was shown throughout the country. It was available to viewers in the client reception sections of small and large post offices throughout all five of the country’s postal districts, and in cultural centres. Tableaux contained reproductions, photographs, and enlarged images of stamps portraying the history of the postal service, telecommunications, and the Hungarian nation. The first tableau was a portrayal of the evolvement of government postal organisations from the Middle Ages to today. It included medieval couriers and messengers, royal and Ottoman postal activities, the Habsburg post office, the Royal Hungarian Post Office, the socialist post office of the recent past, and the current postal service. The second tableau showed the evolvement of the telecommunications infrastructure. It included maps of the various eras with their postal roads and telecommunications networks, and photographs of postal coaches and other vehicles. We offered images of broadcasting operations including open-air telecom equipment such as transmitters, telephone poles, phone booths and letterboxes, post offices and major administrative centres. The third tableau focused on the symbols of nationhood as they appeared on telecommunications products. The symbols included the Holy Crown, the national colours, and the national coats-of-arms, as portrayed on postal printed materials, seals, medallions, ink stamps, letter stamps, pins, banners, rank signifiers, letterboxes, and postal vehicles. The fourth tableau contained images of stamps. They depicted the 1,000 years of Hungarian nationhood in chronological order, through portrayals of historical events and personalities, significant buildings, commemorative sites, and artefacts. The mission of the exhibit was to bring the message of a thousand years of Hungarian nationhood as reflected by postal history closer to everyone who entered a post office. Since the tableaux were placed in busy public spaces in the post offices, the traditional museum outlook was turned around. Instead of the visitor coming to see the presentation, the exhibit was taken to the public. We were happy to see that people entering the post offices were pleased with the initiative, as reflected in the wealth of comments written into the guest books. Most were appreciative and called on us to continue with this type of showing. The signatures suggest that teachers and students from local schools deliberately visited the post offices to see the exhibit. In other words, the itinerant exhibit transcended post office walls, turning the post offices into veritable museums for a few days. The exhibit also proved that people are interested in the history of the postal service and telecommunications, and were also pleased to see images of the thousand-year history of the nation. Many comments reflect patriotic pride. 209
