Postai és Távközlési Múzeumi Alapítvány Évkönyve, 2002
Rövid tartalmi összefoglaló angol nyelven
István Kurucz Preface The future rests on the foundation of the past, and to set it onto a firm foundation we need to be aware of that past. Museums can help, especially when they reach out beyond the visitors who actually enter their halls, and tell their tales to a wider audience through yearbooks or Internet websites. This yearbook goes beyond our traditional review of our annual work plans, progress report on projects underway, and outline of special events and happenings. It also describes how the defining tool of our era, the computer has made its way into our work, how it facilitates research, and offers new and effective ways to make a hard job easier. Museum-goers benefit too, for the Worldwide Web virtually stretches museum walls, making it possible to let visitors see even the items that have been gathering dust for years in storage because of a shortage of display area. We have only just begun to explore Internet possibilities but - as they say - the results are encouraging. Not only do our curators agree on this point, for so did the professionals who helped design the CD-ROM on the history of telephony attached to this yearbook, as did professional public opinion. The study entitled Post Offices, Postal Workers and the Scientific Compendium certainly doesn’t support the contention that there’s nothing new under the sun, that the only things to change are circumstances and opportunities. Nevertheless, it got me thinking. I thought about how the people of the time did their utmost to relay information to the broadest possible sectors of people they could reach with tools that we would consider inadequate and even primitive. I started thinking along those same lines at the idea of using zeppelins to carry mail. We have all seen how a given era, event, or even person has been viewed quite differently in subsequent times. Historians are certain to dispute my theory that the writing of history depends on the self-interests of the writers. But, we would agree, I think, that contemporary letters and journals written concurrently with events, and memoirs reflecting on them do help us to learn history. The yearbook contains several such memoirs, as well as fascinating chroniclers describing events as they occurred, and their posterity which can fill us in on and then what happened? What we have are stories of the postal services meshed with history. When reading the petition for the reinstatement of the Jancsifalu letter carrier, I suddenly remembered my own childhood and how excited we all were when our dearly loved mail carrier arrived each day, essentially representing an institution used and respected by all. There are many interesting studies in this yearbook. While recommending them to readers, I also want to take the opportunity to warmly welcome our new, younger authors as I greet the more experienced ones as old Mends. I’d like to wish them all much success in an activity we are all doing together - one that offers a glimpse into the past and lets us capture events of the present for those who follow in our footsteps. Finally - platitude or otherwise -1 am delighted that this yearbook has become more mature, more elegant, and more beautiful with each passing year, as have the museums of the foundation. Thank you for that. 342
