Benedek Csaba – H. Bathó Edit – Gulyás Katalin – Horváth László – Kaposvári Gyöngyi szerk.: Tisicum - A Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok Megyei Múzeumok Évkönyve 14. (2004)

The Establishment of a Museum and its Antecedents in Szolnok from Viktor Hild to Béla Balogh

and historic values, a "real" museum be established m town. He edited and published the Független Lap, in which, in 1913, in connection with the first assembly of the Alföld Cultural Association, he evaluated not only the plans, activities and situation of the association, but also articulated the image of a long-awaited museum. Taking advantage of a possibility that offered itself, he was right to say that it took strong determination, attention, enthusiasm and consistent work to realise such an institution. In other words, it took nothing else but the systematic work that he had started and had been carrying out for nearly 40 years. He knew that he was not exaggerating. In two lengthy articles, he pointed out the way and necessity of catching on the possibility. Here are some quotes that are relevant in connection with the establishment of the museum. "The function of large state museums is to collect the products of universal human culture from all ages. To carry out this function we need a considerable amount of intellectual and material power. The smallest competition in case of a provincial museum might prove to be a fatal organizational mistake. The function of a provincial museum is to display the culture of its own region from the most ancient times in a totality that cannot be expected from large nationwide institutions." "The question of organising a library is much easier. With the exception of the archive, which needs to be united with it, and the history department, where all things concerning the past of the county are to be collected." "In establishing a museum and a library, the first task is businesslike and intense collection of material (...) Delaying the acquisition of museum and library materials might impose a danger. Without any delay experts should search the county, record and evaluate the value of all items in possession of private people and obtain these objects as soon as possible, whether as donations or by purchasing. The same applies to old books as well. But we must hurry so that no one will acquire them before us. This should be our agenda. All the rest is just idle talk." The materialization of this admirable concept was deterred by World War I. After the war, the most acute job of the injured and truncated country was not to build new cultural institutions. In other words, the case of a museum lost ground in any programmes. The appearance of an other enthusiastic scientist dr. Béla BALOGH (1890—1947) meant the next step in establishing a museum. Paradoxically, his arrival in Szolnok was due to the war, which had annihilated all efforts to found a museum; as a result of those changes of fortune when scores of families migrated from the areas that had become the territories of other countries. People who had lost their homes and livelihood crowded into their motherland, which had been robbed by the communist dictatorship and Rumanian occupation, where commodities and possibilities were scarce. Especially professionals started to arrive: office-bearer, priests, army officers, public servants, railway and postal officers, researchers, doctors, lawyers and teachers. Among them was Béla BALOGH (born in Kassa), a teacner or natural nisrory anu geograpiiy. ne паи sei v си at> a soldier in the war, had survived three years of captivity as a prisoner of war in Siberia, the revolution and had demobilised as lieutenant first class, and, as he wrote in his autobiography: "A refugee, I fled with my family from the South. While moving we were robbed. Finally I got a job as a teacher in Szolnok in a merchant school, and then, in 1918, I was appointed an ordinary teacher at a state secondary grammar school." The possibility to step forward appeared nearly at the same time, when, in 1925, dr. Tamás Tóth, an enthusiastic and acknowledged expert of all areas of modern municipal management became mayor. While he was mayor "Szolnok started to flourish in an American way". Among other things next to the town hall in Apponyi street (today Táncsics street) a tenement house was constructed, where the materials and collections of the town museum was stored after 10 years. While discussing the antecedents of establishing the local museum, we must mention Károly KAUTZ, a provinciálist shoemaker and his collection of books of more than 1000 volumes, which he devised to the town under the condition that it would form the basis of a prospective public town library. Not only was the donation noble, but it was compulsive at the same time. It made it for the town council necessary to deal with this generous donation and the question of a library whether they wanted or not. They had to decide whether to accept it or not. Since in this year all questions concerning town life were publicised in different politically orientated newspapers, in order to ensure the support and sympathy of the taxpaying citizens, the council could do nothing but accept a donation of this size. On 30 December, 1924 the town council held its monthly assembly, where it was decided to establish a public town library based upon the 1200volume bequest of the late Károly KAUTZ, and assessor Gábor Kiss was appointed librarian. This piece of news proved, that this action and "boasted stroke of the pen" was viewed as the "foundation stone of the library". Between 1918 and 1941 Béla BALOGH worked as the geography teacher of the Verseghy Secondary Grammar School. Although he was not a committed follower of pedagogics - as a student, he had preferred attending the anatomical, histological and chemical lectures of the medicine faculty -, he did an excellent job as a teacher. It is proved by the number of his outstanding students. To justify this it is enough to mention the class that left school in 1938, where among his students one can find Sándor Baranyó and Sándor Botos painters, József Verebély, lawyer, and Bertalan Lengyel, doctor. He knew what impression he was leaving on his students. In his memoirs, we can read, "My 8-grader students (...) in December, 1932 surprised me with a list of signatures demanding the establishment of a museum..." With inciting his students, his imminent surroundings, and members of the local bureaucracy, he managed to fulfil his predecessor's goal. Fist of all, in 1933 the Library and Museum Society was formed. In his speech at the first assembly of the society, Béla BALOGH emphasized "after 10 years of fruitless attempts (...) we have come to see that the case of 438