Museum of Ethnography restores thousands of photographs about Hungarian folk culture

The Museum of Ethnography in Budapest, Kossuth Square, has been closed since 2017, as the building is moving to City Park inside the brand-new building which is part of the Liget Budapest project. Until the move, experts of the museum keep on collecting the exhibits and also digitalising beautiful pictures about Hungarian folk culture. 

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Index reported that digitalising is every Hungarian museum’s essential task as many of them hide secret and valuable cultural treasures many do not know about. Most of these collections are not available online, and only scientists know about their existence. Many examples prove that it would be crucial to make these treasures accessible for everyone interested in the country. 

The photo archive of the Museum of Ethnography is the essential guide for Hungarian folk culture and traditions. The good news is that scientists not only managed to save some pictures but also made them available on the Internet. 

Workers of the Tripont Cultural Heritage Solution restored approximately 35,000 pictures out of 350,000. These copies taken around the 1950s are the most dangerous ones as their material is highly flammable and bacteria can easily destroy them. This process can be slowed down with several methods but cannot be stopped. 

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The project continued with restoring 75,000 pictures taken between 1890 and 1940. Most of these pictures were taken about the Hungarian villages of the Carpathian Basin in 1896 during the era of the Millenium. These pictures and the ones mentioned above will be exhibited in the new building. 

The museum also purchased another 25,000 photographs from photography studios about Hungarian folk culture back in the 19th and 20th centuries. Moreover, another 6,000 drawings from the 1880s and 1890s are also being restored by scientists. 

Nevertheless, the museum reported that it would continue to stick to an old tradition, which means that these photographs will not be available for downloading, and the websites, archives, and museums of Hungarian villages and towns will not receive any of the restored pictures. 

• Museum of Ethnography – Collection online

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Source: www.index.hu