National Museum A Century of Development in the Museum of the Nation
From the 1896 Millenary Celebrations to the 1989–90 Political Changes
In the late 19th century differentiation between the branches of science took place, and this process included museology – the division of the large, unified national collections got underway and independent, specialist institutes appeared. The process in Hungary began in the 1870s.
It can be said that the 20th-century history of the HNM began in 1894 with the appointment of ImreSzalay as director. He played an important role in organising the Millenary Celebrations and later in helping bring about the appearance of Hungary at the 1900 Paris World Exhibition. At the time the National Széchényi Library, the Medals and Antiquities Collection, the Picture Gallery, the Animals Collection, the Minerals and Fossils Collection, the Plants Collection and the Ethnography Collection all belonged to the HNM, which held more than three million objects. This large amount had caused storage problems for decades. Prior to the turn of the century several committees grappled with the unsustainable position. An idea was to cover one of the inner courtyards, though this was never realised. Adding to the problem was that part of the building was used for sessions of the Upper House of Parliament, causing visitors to the museum and the library to use the side entrances. This situation ceased in 1902 when, after completion of the new parliament building, the MPs moved out. Developments were interrupted by the outbreak of the Great War. After the Romanian occupation, around mid November 1919 the everyday life of the HNM returned to its old ways. Then the appointment of KunoKlebelsberg as Minister of Religion and Education brought about an important change in the life of the museum and the national public collections. In 1922 he introduced a law relating to self-government of major collections and their staff members, which brought into existence an autonomous, self-governing organisation for the major public collections.
The most significant change for the HNM was brought about by the reconstruction of its building. The planning and execution of the large-scale work, was headed by ÖdönLechner. The design began in 1926 and the work was finally completed in 1931. In 1925 BálintHóman introduced an entrance fee system, which as a consequence led to a drastic reduction in the number of visitors. However, from the following year there was a sharp increase in the numbers.
From 1943 to the end of the war ensuring the safety of the objects became of prime importance. In 1951 FerencFülep was appointed director of the museum, a position he held right up to 1986.