Museum - Ottó Herman Museum

The Herman Ottó Museum of Miskolc is the centre of the Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén county museological institute. It consists of 7 region museums, 3 specialized collections, 3 memorial places and 5 exhibition centres.

The museum was founded in 1899, under the name of Borsod-Miskolczi Museum. Its operation was first financed by the Borsod-Miskolczi Museum and Cultural Community, then from 1914 to 1949 the county of Borsod and the town of Miskolc provided the means necessary for its running. The institute took the name of the versatile scientist Ottó Herman in 1953. The museum became the centre of the museological organization in 1963, and at this time its target area extended to the entire county of Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén.

In the depository of the museum there are nearly half a million separately filed items. The largest collection is that of archaeology, the outstanding units of which are the first material relics of the prehistoric age, the relics of Bükk and Bodrogkeresztúr from the Neolithic age, and representative works of arts from the time of the Hungarian conquest. The mineral collection of the museum preserves the largest Hungarian stone and mineral connection of the Carpathian basin. The importance of the fine arts collection kept here is proven - besides of the large number of the works - by the fact that it contains some masterworks of all outstanding Hungarian painters. Our national painting can be presented from Mányoki to Moholy Nagy through all the others. The historical collection is rich in items of industry history, and joining this there is an archive of nearly half a million pages of written material covering the period between the 14th century and today. The internationally recorded part of the ethnographic collection is that of the popular arts material ofthe "Matyó" and "palóc" ethnics. One of the biggest numismatic collections of Hungary can also be found in the Herman Ottó Museum.

The Herman Ottó Museum was declared a scientific research centre in 1985 by the cultural government. Several regularly published periodicals secure the publication of the achievements of our 40 professional employee and the research workers connected to the institute. The enlargement of the library of nearly 200,000 volumes is secured by systematic purchase and exchange relationships.

In 1999 the Herman Ottó Museum became the museum of the year in Hungary. The town council presented a Pro Urbe prize to the museum for its versatile and excellent professional activities. From 1997 the collection gives home to the Historico-cultural and Museological department of the University of Miskolc.

Dr. László Veres museum director.

Programmes

Autumn Festival of Museums

further programmes

Permanent exhibitions

Pannonian Sea Geological and Natural History Collection

Art Gallery

The fine art collection on display on the first floor of the main building of the Herman Ottó Museum consists of paintings by every outstanding Hungarian visual artist. The visitors will see paintings, statues, drawings and graphics in this room. In addition to these, rare applied art items are also shown. The permanent exhibition renewed in 2005 is made of 200 works from the 1700s to the middle of the 20th century.

The organizers intention was to show great eras in the history of Hungarian painting, from the Baroque to the Avant-garde. Besides the statues and paintings, the applied art pieces create intimate interaction between space and works of art.

Ever since the establishment of the Herman Ottó Museum in 1899, it has collected works of art by visual artists. By now, the collection consists of over 16000 items. The museum, then Public Education and Museum Society of Borsod-Miskolc purchased the first paintings by Pál Szinyei Merse and Adolf Fényes. The material of the first exhibition the museum presented already contained fine art.

In the first decade, museum employees mostly collected visual art about towns and the county. Travelling exhibition arrived in Miskolc from Upper Hungary with the best period contemporary works of art thanks to the tireless work of Bertalan Balogh.

Nagybánya spirit soon took its place on the art scene of Miskolc. On account of this, an artist colony started in Miskolc in 1921. Works of art by artists who worked at the colony often ended up in the museum collection that was made up of 279 items in 1953. Soon after, as the result of municipal and county patronage, a growth that had not been experienced before took place.

In 1974, the municipal art gallery united with the fine art collection of the Herman Ottó Museum. Later on the museum acquired a number of heritages of significance that resulted in the museum becoming one of the most important art galleries in Hungary. In 1975 the State of Hungary bestowed the heritage of the young deceased artist Béla Kondor to the Herman Ottó Museum. In 1977, the heritage of the painter László Ficzere of Miskolc was added to the collection.

Taking over the representative painting and statue collection of one of the greatest Hungarian private collectors, Dr. Sándor Petró, meant a milestone in the history of the museum. With the Petró collection included in its material, the museum was ready to organize a representative exhibition presenting the most important paintings by Hungarian artists of the past 200 years. In addition to some furniture, ceramics and glasses, a collection of rugs from the east and a pillbox collection demonstrate real artistic value.

Ages, photos, cameras

The engineer Zoltán Dömötör from Mályi did not load the shelves in his house with books or porcelain ornaments but beautiful old cameras. His habit of collecting cameras in the past thirty years resulted in a complex photography history material.

His collection consists of around one-thousand cameras, a few hundred movie cameras, movie- and still projectors, hundreds of books on photography and a store full of tools and laboratory equipments. Thousands of Carte de visites and photos from around the world add to the collection where the pieces are from the 1850s to the 1950s.

The showing on the history of photography goes back to the second part of the 19th century. The material is displayed in chronological order. The biographies of the most important people related to photography history are shown on walls next to the photos.

Two accordion cameras on stands are situated in two corners of the room. The origins of one of them is unknown, it is probably from the 1860-70 period. The other one is a IHAGEE CORONA, from 1918.

Cameras on stands in the hallways all have remarkable stories. Some of them are interesting from the point of view of history, some are interesting for their Hungarian connections, some are remarkable for their human relationships and other have family value.

Jewels of photography history are positioned in lit cases in the middle of the room, such are miniature cameras, photometers etc. Curiosities of photography history are shown in room 2 in thematic order.

The museum pedagogy room is an interactive room for the visitors to check out. School groups, families and individuals can use this space for museum classes, playhouses and lectures.

further exhibitions