Heritage and memory of peasant burgher life in Kiskunhalas
The Thorma János Museum in Kiskunhalas
MúzeumCafé 48.
The founding father of the Kiskunhalas museum was a certain Áron Szilády, a Calvinist pastor who was simultaneously a historian, linguist, orientalist, academician and politician. The collection found a home in the building of the new grammar school. A major inventory undertaken in 1940 accounted for 13,000 items. According to an assessment of 1948–49, altogether 287 items remained from the original collection. Then in the course of 1950-51 the museum was reborn and named after the painter János Thorma. In 1953 the institute moved into the Kolozsváry-Kiss Mansion, which is still its home. For two decades the museum has been headed by the historian, ethnographer and museologist, Aurél Szakál. It was strengthened with the establishment of the Halas Museum Foundation in 1996 and the Friends of the Museum in 1998. In 1998, for the anniversary of the 1848–49 War of Independence, two large paintings by Thorma were restored and the Thorma Gallery was refurbished. In 1998 the institute was presented with the Museum of the Year award and the following year the 125th anniversary of its foundation was celebrated. For many years Aurél Szakál has been an active researcher and enthusiastic editor of books, editing almost 100 volumes in the course of 20 years. The Thorma János Museum Annals series has already reached its 40th volume. In recent years the series has dealt with the correspondence of Thorma, the life of Áron Szilády, the history of Jews in Kiskunhalas, as well as local humour and regional gastronomy. Today the museum’s collection comprises more than 100,000 items, primarily focussing on ethnography and local history, but archaeology, numismatics, fine arts and applied arts are also represented.