Hírközlési Múzeumi Alapítvány, Évkönyv, 2003-2004
Rövid tartalmi összefoglaló angol nyelven
István Kurucz Preface Standing before the Balatonszemes memorial to communications workers who lost their lives in the course of duty, who so often made great sacrifices, I was deeply moved during the unveiling ceremony, and in this I was not alone. I found it both moving and very human to see a museum not only present the history of a profession but also remember the people who did more than simply work as they contributed to the story of that profession, for they engraved themselves into its history with their deaths. The persons whose dream it was that this memorial be established deserve special thanks, as do all those who contributed their work or donated larger or smaller amounts of money to its creation. Although there is a detailed description of the memorial in the yearbook as well as several photographs in addition to the one on the cover, it really needs to be seen in the original. When reading through the yearbook’s work plans, reports of jobs completed and descriptions of how things have progressed, the work, the activity, and the many achievements of the two museums truly come to life, reflecting the pride and joy they inspire. Winning the award Museum of the Year 2002 reflects prestige and recognition of achievements. With renewal of the website www.postamuzeum.hu and inclusion of the Museum of Telephony’s virtual exhibit and 5500 photographs from the Postal Museum collection on the Internet, it now offers something that a visitor to a conventional museum misses out on. That visitor simply cannot flip through the images in the collection of photographs the way that a user of the tools of our era, the Internet or a CD-ROM can. The photo collection has been successfully turned into a true public treasure. Visitors to museum programmes are well acquainted with museum public relations, as are readers who study the programmes in printed form. Perhaps readers might decide to try out the programmes in person, enabling us to greet them there, for it is clear from the 2005 work plan that we will be celebrating many topical anniversaries. Anniversaries are also good for reminiscing. Give it a test. See how lovely it is to read the writings of people still among us, telling us about their work in their own words. Knowing what we know today, listening with contemporary ears to how they learned, and how they had to overcome the new and changing tasks that people of all eras have to face, can be most insightful. When considering the anniversary at Taliândôrogd, it is worth thinking about the accelerated world we live in while reading about how initial measures to save a historical relic were not really understood. It is a shame how objects and facilities that have already been destroyed qualify as the valuable relics, while the ones that might still be saved with comparatively little money are not considered valuable ... until we no longer have them. While the written materials on the seventy-year-old antenna at Lakihegy focus primarily on the history of technology, the 80-year-old history of radio broadcasting in Hungary is a part of our very personal history and the tower has become a symbol of 314
