A gyűjtemény leírása
During the period between 1874 and 1918, when many of the museum's collections were founded, Hungary's position as part of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy gave it access to a complex network of foreign relations. Accordingly, international connections at the Museum of Ethnography were established primarily through the Royal Court Museum in Vienna, while ships of war (such as the Zrínyi and Szigetvár) were often commissioned to collect ethnographic material after the German and Austrian example.
Additions to the America Collection made during this period included 700 ethnographic and 550 archaeological artefacts before 1903, followed by a further 1100 ethnographic objects from 10 countries between 1903 and 1918. At the end of the 19th century, the museum acquired the material collected by missionaries Ede Szenger, Lajos Schlesinger, Jenő Prokop, Jenő Bánó, and Dr. Wilhelm Bauer for the Ethnographic Mission Exhibition, followed by the collection of J. Pap, Leo Hirsch, Dr. Ödön Nesnera, and C. Wahle. It purchased its Eskimo collection at the World's Fair held in Paris in 1900.
Total acquisitions between 1919 and 1945 came to 59 new ethnographic items, followed by a further 43 artefacts between 1945 and 1960, all donated by charitable benefactors, in addition to some 200 items acquired through archaeological explorations. About half of contributors were Hungarians living abroad, though some items came from the Museum of Applied Arts as part of the legacy left by Ferenc Hopp and János Xántus.
As a result of the political reprieve experienced in the 1960's, relations between various institutions were revitalised, and museum researchers, external individuals, and later a growing number of students embarked on extensive field work projects. The collection was influenced most heavily during this period by the work of Lajos Boglár, who carried out research in both Brazil and Venezuela. Since the 1960's, the collection has benefited from the addition of over 3000 new acquisitions.
The collection includes 2,670 archaeological objects, with nearly every significant culture of the Americas represented by at least one or two artefacts. Although more than half of these were taken from known locations, most did not come to the museum directly from the archaeological dig where they were discovered. Not counting 1,430 stone utensils originating from the United States, the greatest number of findings, 726 objects, come from Mexico, with a further 156 from Peru, and 110 from Columbia.
Some 600 pieces were added to the collection prior to 1918 (1911), while additions came to a total of 200 items during the second period in the collection's history. In terms of sheer numbers, growth has been greatest since 1965, with new acquisitions numbering 1,800 items, although 1,284 of these came in the form of a single donation of obsidian utensils from the United States. However, the remaining 600 items include the vast majority of the best archaeological discoveries in the collection.
The curators of the collection are György Szeljak Ph.D. (ethnography) and János Gyarmati Ph.D. (archeology).