Boros István (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 5. (Budapest 1954)

Boros, I.: The new exhibitions of the Hungarian National Museum - Museum of Natural History

They consist, conforming to the demand of travelling in packing-boxes, of cases : that is, tableaus mountable on supports, with a 120 x 105 cm size,, and a depth of from 5 to 12 cm, according to the material. They can be propped up on hardwood-leg trestles, in pairs, backing each other, but they can be)hung separately, too. Their basic color, framed by lighter or darker varnished wooden cases, is different, always in compliance with the material : the exhibition of Fishes and Fisheries is pastel green, the Insect Pests exhibition has a dark gray background, that of the Industrial Plants is white. The number of cases, according to the extent of the themes, is also different : the Fish exhibition consists of 28 cases, that of Insect Pests of 15, of Industrial Plants 18. The material used for the illustration of the themes is the most diverse ; we try to exhibit as much objects as possible but, inherent to the nature of the case, we employ copious other expedients also : photographs, drawings, paintings, models, etc. Not infrequently we were faced by troublesome problems, to be solved only after wearisome efforts. Especially so in the case of the Fish travelling exhibition, where we did not find the use of plaster models suitable,, even because of the lengthiness of procedure of preparations. To display wet preparations, particularly big specimens, would have been impossible, — the more so as it was to be a travelling exhibition. Besides, we wanted to avoid illustrations only by color-paintings or photographs. The new method of preparation, devised by I. iVji s ó v ö 1 g y i of our staff, made possible to exhibit real fishes, — the whole Hungarian piscine fauna. The process is as follows : To possibly preserve the fish-scales, which, as is wellknown, fall off during the turning out of the skin, the fish must be cut longitudinally into two "halves — and after careful removal of the muscles, with special care to the intactncss of the basal row of the scales — to be prepared as a »halffish« : pulled on a plaster model, and then adjusted to the tableau. By the use of this method we have succeeded to completely preserve the scales, nor did their natural gloss alter ; our artists had only to repair the coloration in some places. Together with the natural watercolored background, the fishes, exhibited without congestion of the place, are so showy that, in our opinion, the grave problem of how fishes are to be prepared most decoratively for display purposes, can be regarded as solved by the V i s ó v ö 1 g y i process. We had to take into consideration, also in the case of the Insect Pests exhibition, that the insect material, when pinned in boxes, will shortly get spoiled during the unavoidable shaking of the transfer : it will break up and the several specimens will splinter away from the pins. We displayed them therefore in Petri dishes, glued on plaster, fumigated, and hermetically sealed. Since, in the majority of the cases, the objects are very small, we display them supplemented by enlarged drawings, paintings and photographs, taking special care to fit these also aesthetically to the material. The various insect pests are grouped together, framed with various light, pestel-colored backgrounds, against the indifferent grey base of the tableaus. In the technical execution of the travelling exhibition of the Industrial Plants, the pressed plants were sealed hermetically between glass sheets, according to the method used in the botanical exhibition. The edges of the glas sheets were bound together by glass streaks, eliminating thereby the disturbing effects of frames made of other materials. We demonstrated the respective utilization of every industrial plant, with as rich material as possible (textile samples, tobacco and tobacco ware, preserves and canned material, seeds, oil samples, etc).