Subunits of the Collection of Historical Mineral and Rock Specimens
József Szabó’s Collection
Approximately 4,100 items of the collection were received from the Eötvös L. University. It mainly contains hand specimens of rocks and ores, which were originally collected by Prof. Szabó József (1822–1894), “the father of Hungarian geology” and some of his students and assistants (e.g. Gyula Szádeczky) in the second half of the 19th century, especially in the former territory of Hungary: Cenozoic volcanic mountains around Körmöc / Kremnitz (now Kremnica), Selmec / Schemnitz (now Banská Štiavnica) and the Eperjes–Tokaj Mts. (now Slanské vrchy Mts. and Tokaj Mts). Most of the specimens bear the original numeric collection code of Szabó, which helps to identify the samples in Szabó’s original field notebooks (which is preserved in the Collection of History of Science of the Geological and Geophysical Institute of Hungary). The rest of the specimens gathered by Szabó and his co-workers remained at the Eötvös L. University.
Collection of Ch. A. Zipser
The collection of 460 rocks, ores and minerals, that was originally gathered by Christian Andreas Zipser (1783–1864),a teacher and naturalist from Besztercebánya / Neusohl (now Banská Bystrica), was donated with their original catalogues in 2013 by the Swedish Museum of Natural History. The specimens originate from inaccessible territories of historical Hungary. The uniqueness of this material is the representation of the collecting activity of Zipser who was the most significant mineral and rock collector of the first part of the 19th century. While he donated several sample collections to European Museums and scientific institutions, no such “assortment” survived in Hungary and his own collection was also dispersed after his death.
Collection of historical research samples
This unit consist of research samples of former curators of the department and materials donated by other Hungarian petrologists and mineralogist. In 2013 the collection accounted for 1,100 items, but the registration of the items has not been completed yet. Researchers, whose samples it preserves currently [in square brackets: years of affiliation to the museum]: Lajos Jugovics (1887–1975 [1910–1911]), Ferenc Kaszanitzky [1957–1963], Lengyel Endre (1895–1981), id. Lajos Lóczy (1849–1920 [1874–1883]), Béla Mauritz (1881–1971), Emil Scherf (1889–1967), László Tokody (1898–1964 [1944–1963]), Helga Vinczéné Szeberényi (1938 [1961 –1993])
„Collection of specimens with old labels”
This unit consists of nearly 800 specimens that have not been included in the core collections mostly due to the missing of their relevant catalogues and tray. According to their tags, however, they belong to the old collection the majority of which was destroyed in 1956.
Collection of thin sections
This collection has been formed from items that were separately found from the relevant specimens of our Department. Most of them represent research material of our former staff members but we also retain several thin sections belonging to specimens that were donated by the Hungarian Geological Institute after 1956. In 2014 the collection accounted for 812 items, however, registration has not been completed yet.