Magyar Egyház, 1996 (75. évfolyam, 1-2. szám)

1996 / 1. szám

A VISIT TO THE HUNGARIAN HERITAGE CENTER

It was a long ride, but it was worth it. Last time we saw the Hungarian Heritage Center was a few years ago when it was first opened. We were very impressed at that time with the outstanding exhibit of Hungarian artists. During this Christmas Holiday we couldn’t resist the temptation. We recruited Grandma and headed out to New Brunswick. There in the vicinity of Rutgers University we easily found the building that was converted from a needle factory to a Hungarian style museum—a professional creation by László Papp, an architect from our neighborhood, from New Canaan.

We didn’t take the tour of the place because we found the exhibits sufficient to fill the time that we planned to spend there. Actually there were three exhibits to see. They were about Lajos Kossuth, Hungarian artists and the Festival of Trees.

The Kossuth exhibit, mostly panels and paintings gave a well designed showing of the history around 1848. They showed his life, his political career and his time in exile. A sizable portion of this show was about Kossuth’s visit to the United Statesof America. We saw the landing on our shores, the Broadway celebration in New York, his ride on horse-back to Boston and many other pictures of how America welcomed the leader of the Hungarian Revolution. The Magyar News carried some of these pictures on the occasion of the Hungarian National Holiday. We saw first day envelopes commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Revolution with a 4 cent and an 8 cent stamp issued by the Post Office of the United States. There were also many documents and books by Kossuth. In oneof the cases there is a letter hand written in English by Kossuth.

On the same floor a collection of Christmas trees raised our holiday spirit. Among the many nationalities, naturally a Hungarian tree is adorning the place. Some of the

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decorations are gingerbread-like honey cakes decorated with familiar embroidery motifs designed by Patricia Fazekas.

Before we took off to the second floor, we looked into the Hungarian peasant room. It had a typical bed stacked high with embroidered pillows, chairs, benches carved and painted.

On the second floor there are three exhibits of artists. They are on loan from the Collection of Frank and Wendy Csóka. There are twelve self-portrait etching prints created by Hungarian artists who started out in the 20’s and they all knew each other. A few years after they put this portfolio together they completed another one that consists of ten landscapes. All these artists were well known and had international fame.

The third part of the exhibit were the paintings and etchings of István Csóka, the only member of the group who emigrated

Kossuth exhibit with Christmas trees

Kossuth on his way to Boston. Painting by Sándor Bodo.

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