Gulyás Katalin et al. (szerk.): Tisicum - A Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok Megyei Múzeumok Évkönyve 24. (Szolnok, 2015)
Történettudomány - Selmeczi László: 80 éves a Damjanich Múzeum
SELMECZI LÁSZLÓ: 80 ÉVES A DAMJANICH MÚZEUM László Selmeczi The Damjanich Museum is 80 years old In a lecture presented on 11th November, 2014 on the 80th anniversary of the Szolnok Museum and Library, the author recalled the most important milestones in the history of the museum. The archaeological, palaeontological and numismatic material objects, notes on history and archaeology including original archive documents and a specialist library of nearly 800 volumes collected by Viktor Hild formed the bulk material of the collection of the museum. From the 1920’s, dr Béla Balogh, a scholar teacher of the local secondary grammar school with the assistance of his students started systematically collecting the archaeological findings unearthed in and around Szolnok. In May 1933, the Association of Szolnok Library and Museum was established, and for the collections they designated the basement rooms of a town apartment building in 1 Táncsics Mihály street. In the summer of 1946, Gyula Kaposvári, who had just returned from an American prisoner of war camp joined in the re-arrangement process of the museum and library material that had been seriously damaged as the battle front moved across the town. Fie provided voluntary assistance in assessing the damages and arranging the material that had remained. Following the successful re-organisation of the institutions, from May 1949 until his retirement he was the leader of the museum. A large scale historic exhibition that was arranged as part of the series of celebrations commemorating the centenary of the 1848/49 Revolution and War of Independence allowed the museum to re-appear in the cultural life of the town. Apart from palaeontology and archaeology, the scope of collecting extended over the whole county enlarged with ethnography and fine arts. By the second half of the 1960’s each department of the museum was headed by qualified museology experts who did not see the Damjanich Museum merely as their workplace but they won a creative space where they could work independently, a characteristic feature that Gyula Kaposvári always encouraged. From this time onwards the technical and financial conditions of the operation of the Damjanich Museum strengthened continuously. A new restoration workshop and photography laboratory were set up, and they created a Xerox and rota plant that capable of creating museum publications. Translated by Dezső Darabont 345
