A Kiskőrösi Közúti Szakgyűjtemény Évkönyve 2000-2006. (2007)

VIII. SUMMARY

Foreword I would like to decicate the Yearbook of the Technical Collection of Public Roads in Kiskőrös (2000-2006) with great pleasure and honour to all readers. With pleasure, because it's the first time that we have got the chance to publish it in this selection with this contents and design which answers to professional standard of the collection. And with honour, because all public road workers have to respect the values of the past of public road building, as well as the roots and the traditions of this profession, and it is our duty to provide an opportunity for the public to know as much us possible. Although it's the sixth time that the yearbook - that the reader holds in his hands now - has been published since the establishment of the collection, i.e. since 1975, it is the first volume, which presents the stages of the development and the operation of the technical collection as a valuable source, in a chronologic order. You can study the material of the collection and the professional sources available - by keeping professional character and easy to read at the same time. The presentation of the materials will be easy to understand even to people who are interested but do not work in this profession. By this bank, we can learn about the material of the technical collection, about the professional library, the map gallery and the objects of the open-air exhibition. There are a lot of people who know the collection, but at the same time I think that there are not enough people who understand its real value-preserving role. A lot of people visit the National Historic Memorial Park of Ópusztaszer but only a few of them know that it would be worth visiting the Roadman Memorial House - that was established in its original format and can be found just next to the Feszty panorama picture -, with all its contemporary articles for use, tools and accessories needed for everyday life. This is actually the field exhibition of the technical collection. Just as similar to the furnishing of the „FeketeházyLévárdy" memorial room in Vágsellye, where Imre Lévárdy - a road inspector born in the Hungarian Highlands (today Slovakia), who started collecting the technical relics related to road construction in 1938, by which he founded the technical collection - worked as a road inspector. His everyday articles for personal use can be seen in the memorial house. In addition, I would like to turn the attention of the reader to the essays on the history of this profession that are included in the second part of the volume. These articles - that are based on own research of the authors, on sources and documents available in the technical collection and on other memoirs - may also be considered as sources for getting an insight into the traditions and technology of Hungarian public road workers, and for getting to know road operator and maintenance organizations. In the life of all museums the publication of a yearbook is a milestone by rendering an account of the events, research done in the last period, and of the enrichment of the collection. The Technical Collection of Public Roads in Kiskörös - in its profile being the only one in the whole country beside the Hungarian Museum of Transports - has dealt with the exploration and presentation of the past of road construction since 1975. While the present volume focuses mainly on the events of the last six years, it cannot avoid to introduce the collection in details yet from its foundation. I am confident that the yearbook, or rather the included studies, and the whole history of this profession will encourage many to visit the museum or either of its field exhibitions personally, in order to get to know the memorials of the past of public roads more detailed. If we achieve only so much, then the publication of the „Yearbook of the Technical Collection of Public Roads for 2000-2006" has already brought sufficient results. Budapest, May 2007 LÁSZLÓ, Sándor Managing Director Hungarian Roads Management Company 122