Gyulai Éva - Viga Gyula (szerk.): Történet - muzeológia : Tanulmányok a múzeumi tudományok köréből a 60 éves Veres László tiszteletére (Miskolc, 2010)

MÚZEUMELMÉLET - Kecskeméti Tibor: A természettudományi muzeológia a Gyűjteményegyetem szervezetében

The natural history collections in the organisation of the Hungarian National Collections University The consolidation of Hungary, a country torn asunder both politically and culturally after World War 1 (not least owing to the loss of her territories as stipulated by the Trianon Peace Treaty), was undertaken by the Bethlen government in 1921. The government hoped to compensate for the injustices suffered by Hungary in consequence of the Trianon Peace Treaty by striving for "cultural superiority" in public education, the sciences and the arts over the neighbouring countries. Prime Minister István Bethlen entrusted this ambitious task to Count Kunó Klebelsberg, his Minister of Religion and Public Education. Klebelsberg had a clear vision of what he wished to achieve and turned his energies to realising this ambitious task. His efforts to the raise the standard of culture and education focused on two main fields: public education and scientific research. He submitted several laws and decrees to create the necessary financial and infrastructural background to scientific studies. One of the laws stipulated the foundation of the Hungarian National Collections University for the country's public collections. The study discusses the position of natural history collections in the Collections University, the measures taken to enlarge them and, finally, the achievements in this field. The Collections University was established by Law XIX of 1922, reflecting Klebelsberg's policy regarding scientific research and museum collections. This was the first long-term and consistent cultural policy which focused on the scientific potential of public collections. A series of other laws were designed to promote scientific research in museums, and especially of studies in various fields of the natural sciences. Klebelsberg initiated the foundation of several important institutions at the National Congress of Natural Sciences, Medical Sciences, Technical and Agricultural Sciences held in 1926: the National Natural Sciences Committee and Fund, the Széchenyi Scientific Society, the Collegium Hungaricum Network, various research institutes, the Scholarship Committee, an independent Natural History Museum and research institutes of the natural sciences. One section of the study is devoted to the main milestones in the life of the natural history collections of the Hungarian National Museum from the perspective of the threefold task of museum work: the most important advances in the enlargement and catalogisation of the collection, the publication of the collections, the international contacts of the custodians and the recognition of Hungarian research (acquisition of analytical instruments, collecting expeditions and the funding of various publications). Various measures were taken to enlarge the overcrowded storerooms (one of these was the relocation of the Zoological Collection to the building at 13 Baross Street, another was the utilisation of the museum's attic, providing new exhibitions spaces and storerooms). Also discussed are the exhibitions, the theoretical and practical issues of organising exhibitions, as well as the new publication techniques, together with a few statistics on the visitor numbers. The funding of the natural history collections is treated separately; the study includes a list of the custodians and researchers who worked in the three natural history collections during the existence of the Collections University. How did the natural history collections benefit from the activity of the Collections University and from its founding father. Count Klebelsberg? The perhaps most important among these is the surge of official attention accorded to the collections and the novel research perspectives that provided countless opportunities for new research directions (evolution and phylogeny, interdisciplinary research) coupled with a spate of complementary research projects, new research institutes (such as the Balaton Biological Station at Révfülöp and the Biological Research Institute at Tihany), new exhibition spaces and storage facilities, financial support, as well as a dynamic and highly qualified research elite with a managerial attitude. 490