Fossils of the Carpathian Region

11. Museums and Collections

417 There have always been people, even in very early times, who picked up and collected the eye-catching fossils that they found in the rocks. Prehistoric tombs all across the Carpathian Basin have yielded fossils, especially mollusks , worn as jewels by Early Man. Special finds, such as huge bones from Ice Age mammals, ended up in the collections of noblemen, pharmacists, and naturalists. However, the rapid development of earth sciences from the middle of the nineteenth century onward resulted in the systematic quest for fossils and the enlarging of private and state collections. These turned into the independent collections of state and national natural history museums and special collections in university departments; they served as teaching aids for paleontology and Earth history. Systematic geological mapping of the Carpathian region began after World War I, and this resulted in the further rapid accumulation of fossils in the geological institutions of different countries. THE DEPARTMENT OF PALEONTOLOGY AND GEOLOGY OF THE HUNGARIAN NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM In 1802 the patriotic aristocrat Count Ferenc Széchényi (1754–1820) offered his precious collection of books, manuscripts , carvings, and coins to establish a nationwide museum. This donation gave rise to the Hungarian National Museum, and as the collection got larger additional museums, including the Hungarian Natural History Museum , were founded. Széchényi’s first offer was followed by subsequent donations of minerals, fossils, and plant preparations, and finally the Department of Paleontology at the museum was created. The valuable fossil cabinet of Count Pál Szápár (1753–1825), and the Pleistocene largemammal bones that belonged to Archduke József Rainer (1783–1853) and that literally arrived by carriage, were among the earliest elements of the paleontological collections . The Brunswick Collection, containing precious minerals and fossils, and the collection of the Lobkowitz Dukes also arrived in the middle of the nineteenth century. The latter collection arrived in Pest (at that time Buda and Pest were separate cities) in 300 chests in 11 railway carriages directly from Bílina, a historic city in Bohemia, where the family had an estate. Around the turn of the century, this collection was augmented by the regular purchases of Andor Semsey, the greatest benefactor of Hungarian natural sciences. Some of the finest, most spectacular specimens in today’s museum were bought and donated by Semsey. Some of the stars of early of Hungarian earth sciences, especially paleontology—including figures such as János Salamon Petényi, Gyula Kováts, Miksa Hantken, Lajos Lóczy Sr., and Ágoston Franzenau—worked at the museum in its early years. However, the work of the museum was hampered by wars and, perhaps saddest of all, the Hungarian Revolution in 1956—a spontaneous nationwide revolt against the government and the Soviet Union. During street fighting a bomb struck the National Museum (where the natural history collection was housed), just opposite the Radio Budapest building, an obvious target. The museum caught fire and the collection was heavily damaged. The fire reached the paleontological collection from the direction of the Department of Mineralogy and after a large, plaster-covered door in the wall burned through, the fire became uncontrollable. All the minerals and nearly the entire paleontological collection were destroyed. Later the collection was rebuilt and reorganized, and today the number of cataloged items is over 100,000. Of the collection of invertebrate fossils, Triassic ammonites and brachiopods from the Balaton Highlands, Jurassic ammonites and belemnites from the Bakony Mountains, Cretaceous ammonites from the Bakony and Gerecse Mountains , and Tertiary mollusks are of special importance. Vertebrates are treated separately, and they include the small fossil mammal collections of Tivadar Kormos and Dénes Jánossy, which were gathered from different Hungarian Pliocene and Pleistocene localities. Among the highlights of this collection are the Cretaceous reptiles from Iharkút, all of which were collected over the last 10 years. 11 Museums and Collections 418 m u s e u ms a n d c o l l e c t i o n s The Hungarian Natural History Museum originated as an outgrowth of the Hungarian National Museum. Although it reached maturity, at least legally, a long time ago, it entered true adulthood only when it moved to its own building in 1996. Previously the exhibitions were organized in various locations, and the museum had no clear public image. The new Natural History Museum is an old, but partly renovated, building designed by the celebrated Hungarian architect Mihály Pollack (1773–1855); it was a...