The History of the Museum of Ethnography

The Museum of Ethnography in Budapest is one of Europe’s most significant specialized ethnographic museums. Its collection now comprises more than 235,600 ethnographic objects, complemented by a unique archive of photographs, manuscripts, audio recordings, and films. In addition to the priceless material artefacts of Hungarian folk culture, the museum also houses Hungary’s largest ethnographic collection showcasing cultures outside of Europe, and serves as an important centre for research on contemporary social and cultural phenomena.

The Birth of the Collection (1872–1900)

The history of science considers March 5, 1872, to be the museum’s founding date. It was on this day that János Xántus (1825–1894) was appointed curator of the Ethnographic Department of the Hungarian National Museum. A lawyer by training, served as an officer in the Hungarian Army during the War of Independence, and later became a renowned natural history researcher while in exile in the United States, owed his appointment as chief curator to the large-scale exhibition organized from the approximately 2,500 objects he had collected in East Asia in 1868–1869.

The earliest origins of the collection can be traced to the 92 objects collected by Antal Reguly (1819–1858) between 1843 and 1845 among the Ob-Ugric peoples living in the Northern Urals. In the year of his appointment, Xántus also organized a large-scale collection of Hungarian ethnographic objects for the 1873 World’s Fair in Vienna. The majority of both collections eventually found their way into the Museum of Applied Arts, which had been established in the meantime.

János Jankó (1868–1902) played a pivotal role in the institutionalization of the ethnographic collection; through his multifaceted professional efforts, he transformed the collection—which had previously been neglected—into a fully-fledged museum. He is credited with establishing the ethnographic village in City Park for the 1896 Millennium National Exhibition, which showcased 12 Hungarian and 12 ethnic minority dwellings from 23 counties in Hungary. The selection of house types, their furnishings, and the traditional costumes on display was based on the first national ethnographic collection led by János Jankó. After the millennium celebrations, the houses were dismantled, and the furnishings and costumes were transferred to what is now the Museum of Ethnography, laying the foundation for its collection of materials from the Carpathian Basin.

The Formation of the Academic Workshop

By the early 20th century, the institution was already considered one of Europe’s leading specialized museums. Béla Vikár (1859–1945), a member of the Ethnographic Department, was the first person in the world to collect folk songs using a phonograph. His work was continued by Béla Bartók (1881–1945), Zoltán Kodály (1882–1967), and later László Lajtha (1892–1963), whose activities elevated Hungarian music folklore research within the museum’s walls to the international forefront.

The collections grew through numerous research expeditions beginning at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Sámuel Fenichel and Lajos Bíró in New Guinea, Sámuel Teleki and Emil Torday in Africa, Benedek Baráthosi Balogh in the Amur region, György Almásy in Central Asia, Rudolf Fuszek in Cameroon and Liberia, Géza Róheim in Australia, and Vilmos Diószegi in Siberia and Mongolia collected significant material.

In the field of domestic research, Zsigmond Bátky, István Györffy, and then, in the mid-twentieth century, Edit Fél and Mária Kresz contributed to the expansion and scholarly cataloguing of the museum’s collections through decades of work. This tradition has continued uninterrupted ever since, and the museum’s researchers still conduct numerous field studies in various parts of the world.

The Evolution of the Museum into an Institution

In the 1930s, at the initiative of the Museum of Ethnography and under the direction of its staff, the first large-scale synthesis of Hungarian ethnography, the four-volume *Ethnography of the Hungarian People*, was published. Numerous seminal publications also originated here, including the volumes of the Hungarian Folk Art series (1924–1925) and István Györffy’s monograph Cifraszűr.

From 1929, the museum operated in the school building in Népliget (40 Könyves Kálmán Boulevard), where it displayed its exceptionally rich collection in thirty rooms. The permanent exhibition garnered great acclaim even among visiting colleagues from European specialized institutions. However, the exhibition had to be taken down in 1942 due to the threat of air raids.

The Museum in the Second Half of the 20th Century

The museum became an organizationally independent institution in 1947, when it separated from the Hungarian National Museum. In the 1950s–1970s, the most significant field research and object collections were carried out at the Museum of Ethnography, for example with the collaboration of Klára K. Csilléry, Edit Fél, Tamás Hofer, Judit Morvai, László Kardos, and Mária Kresz.

After outgrowing its building on Könyves Kálmán Boulevard, the institution moved in 1975 opposite the Parliament, into the former Palace of Justice. The building, designed by Alajos Hauszmann and erected in 1896, was originally the seat of the Royal Hungarian Curia and later housed the Hungarian National Gallery.

In 1980, the museum opened its first permanent exhibition based on international collections, titled “From Primitive Societies to Civilizations.” Due to the need to preserve the condition of the valuable artefacts, the exhibition had to be dismantled in 1995. The permanent exhibition “The Traditional Culture of the Hungarian People,” showcasing the entire Hungarian-speaking region, opened its doors in 1991 and presented visitors with artefacts of Hungarian peasant life from the late 18th century to World War I across 13 exhibition rooms.

Since the turn of the millennium, the Museum of Ethnography has become one of the most important institutions in Hungary for museological research and the renewal of ethnographic museum representation. In addition to showcasing Hungarian peasant culture and the peoples of distant continents, the documentation of contemporary social phenomena has also become a priority. The processing and digitization of the collections have accelerated, and the museum has launched numerous new book series, research programs, and international collaborations.

A New Era: The Museum in City Park

In accordance with a government resolution, the Museum of Ethnography’s new home was built at the entrance to City Park as part of the Liget Budapest project. It opened to the public in 2022. Designed by Marcel Ferencz (Napur Architect), the building’s two arched wings blend seamlessly with the park’s greenery, crowned by a rooftop garden open to the public. The grid-like metal lattice covering the glass facade is based on ethnographic motifs drawn from the museum’s collections.

The nearly 7,000-square-meter exhibition space, set below ground level, houses both permanent and temporary exhibitions. The building also accommodates a bookshop, restaurant, library, archive, event centre, visitor centre, and a project space suitable for hosting the “Spend the Night at the Museum!” program. A unique feature of the building is the Ceramics Space, which is free to visit and displays nearly 4,000 ceramics from all over the world.

The new museum building and the institution’s revitalization have also garnered international professional recognition. The building has won numerous prestigious awards, including the World Architecture Festival’s “World Building of the Year” grand prize (2022) and the FIABCI World Prix d’Excellence gold medal (2024).

Collection Centre

Due to another innovative investment, the preservation and accessibility of the Museum of Ethnography’s collections are ensured by the Collection Centre located on Szabolcs Street in Budapest. Built on the site of the former Szabolcs Street Hospital, this approximately 37,000-square-meter complex is one of the most significant domestic infrastructures for modern museum artefect preservation and restoration.

The institution, established as part of a brownfield development project, features artefact storage facilities, restoration workshops, research spaces, and logistics units that provide state-of-the-art conditions for the storage, restoration, and scientific examination of artefacts. The Collection Centre provides high-quality storage and restoration conditions not only for the Museum of Ethnography but also for other national collections, including the Museum of Fine Arts and the Hungarian National Gallery. The establishment of the Collection Centre has fundamentally elevated the Museum of Ethnography’s collection management and research capabilities to a new level. The cataloging, digitization, and scholarly examination of the artefacts stored in the warehouses are among the most important tasks of the museum’s researchers, contributing to the exploration of the knowledge inherent in the collections and to a broader understanding of cultural heritage. Certain programs at the centre—such as storage visits and thematic professional tours—also give the general public an opportunity to gain insight into the museum’s behind-the-scenes work and to get a closer look at the day-to-day life of the collections.

The New Permanent Collection Exhibition

The museum’s new permanent collection exhibition opened in 2024, showcasing the most significant pieces from the Hungarian and international collections through a contemporary museological approach. Featuring thousands of artefacts, the exhibition reinterprets the collection’s holdings through themes of everyday life, community relations, and human creativity.

The exhibition has garnered significant international professional recognition: it won the iF Design Award (2025), received the Red Dot Award, was shortlisted for the prestigious Luigi Micheletti Award, and was nominated for the European Museum of the Year Award (EMYA) (2025).

Collections of the Museum of Ethnography

The international collections of the Museum of Ethnography constitute one of Europe’s most significant ethnographic collections. The African collection, which extends as far as Madagascar, contains 12,000 objects. The Asian collection consists of nearly 15,000 artefacts, most of which were acquired by the museum at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Its largest sub-collections are the Chinese and Japanese collections, followed by Indian, Mongolian, Turkish, Caucasian, and Turkestan materials.

The Oceania collection is one of the museum’s most significant and internationally recognized collections. Three-quarters of the 15,000 objects were collected at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The core of the Indonesian collection, which currently comprises some 4,000 pieces, originates from Java and Borneo.

The European collection, numbering nearly 13,000 pieces, is one of the museum’s oldest sections. In addition to the 19th-century Finno-Ugric collections, the collection of material culture from peoples living in Central Europe and the territory of historical Hungary has also played an important role since the early 20th century. The American collection holds approximately 10,000 objects and includes the American collections of the museum’s founder, János Xántus.

Hungarian Collections

The collections from the Carpathian Basin preserve materials reflecting the daily life and traditions of Hungarians and the ethnic groups of Hungary from the 17th century to the end of the 20th century. In accordance with the concept of traditional occupations from the late 19th century, the museum’s oldest collections include the Fishing, Gathering, and Animal Husbandry and Pastoral Art collections, comprising a total of approximately 15,000 artefacts documenting archaic ways of life. With more than 52,000 objects, the Textiles and Costumes Collection is one of Europe’s most outstanding thematic collections. The Ceramics Collection comprises nearly 30,000 pieces, while the Crafts Collection’s approximately 15,000 objects serve as an important source for the history of traditional craft technologies.

The Furniture and Lighting Collection preserves objects related to home culture, while the Nutritional Collection contains tools for the storage, processing, and consumption of food. The Transportation Collection, the Construction Collection, and the Church, Customs and Toys, and Musical Instruments Collections gather material artefacts of daily life, religious life, and community customs.

Archives and Research

The Ethnological Archive, formerly known as the Ethnological Repository, consists of collections of documents on various media. The idea of establishing it to counterbalance the one-sided focus on collecting artefacts arose in the late 1930s, and its collections were built up beginning in the 1950s. However, from the very beginning, the museum has collected and—primarily through its staff, in connection with field research and ethnographic collections—produced, for example, photographs and audio recordings.

The photograph collection and the sound archive are the two oldest collections in the archives. The Photograph Collection preserves more than 350,000 unique photographs and tens of thousands of photographs cataloged in the cabinet inventory, taken in Hungary, the Carpathian Basin, or even on distant continents. Since the Museum of Ethnography served as the Hungarian centre for folk music collections and research, its Sound Archive contains recordings from every era and on every medium, ranging from phonograph cylinders to digital recordings. From the 1930s onward, motion pictures played a prominent role in documenting ethnographic phenomena. The Ethnographic Museum’s Film Archive collects these film documents, but primarily produces them itself—its collection consists of hundreds of ethnographically themed films, videos, etc.

In addition to documents on peasant literacy and the manuscript collections of ethnographers, the Manuscript Collection preserves a large number of records compiled by volunteer ethnographic collectors. Thanks to this, the collection serves as the largest resource base in Hungary for researchers of folk culture and folklore, as well as for communities and localities seeking documents of their cultural heritage. The exceptionally rich Drawing Collection preserves thousands of color drawings of ethnographic objects and phenomena, while the core of the Painting Collection consists of works by Romani painters. The Print Collection is the largest collection of postcards with folk themes in Hungary.

From its founding, the Archive’s goal has been not only to preserve these materials but also to ensure their accessibility: in addition to card catalogs and photographic description cards, it now serves a wide audience with a large number of digital documents available online.

MaDok-program

The Museum of Ethnography provides an important framework for research into contemporary social and cultural phenomena through the MaDok program, launched in 2003. The initiative combines the documentation of the contemporary material world and museum-based research into contemporary culture with collection development and museological research. The program began as a network based on nationwide museum collaboration, which supported the methodological development of contemporary research, the sharing of research findings, and the museum documentation of contemporary phenomena; today, however, it functions primarily as a methodological workshop and a program that carries out projects built on participation and collaboration.
The program’s research findings have been published in several works: the MaDok Booklets were a key series during the first ten years, while the handbook Open Museum: Participation, Collaboration, Social Engagement summarized methodological lessons and examined issues related to the community-based and participatory operation of museums. A project of the MaDok program is the Jelenarchívum (Archive of the Present) website and open archive, which collects and processes private photographs and the stories associated with them. The MaDok Films competition is also part of the program, encouraging the cinematic documentation of everyday life. Since 2025, the creation and museum processing of the Contemporary Art Collection have been under the professional supervision of the MaDok program. The goal of the MaDok program is the active professional and social engagement of museums and their collections in documenting contemporary social and cultural processes.

The Museum’s Role in the Present Day

The first century and a half of the Museum of Ethnography was largely defined by the struggle to find a suitable building. This process came to an end in 2022, when the institution moved into its new home in City Park. Thanks to the new building, the new permanent collection exhibition, the temporary exhibitions, and ongoing research, the Museum of Ethnography is today one of the defining institutions of Budapest’s cultural life and an active participant in the international network of ethnographic museums.

The Museum of Ethnography is simultaneously a scientific research institute, a collection centre, and a public collection open to the public. One of the foundations of its activities is high-quality scientific work. Research, strategic collection development, and the cataloging of collections are the defining pillars of the institution’s operations. The long-term preservation of the collections is ensured by innovative restoration work and collection care that emphasize preventive conservation, supported by the Museum Collection Preservation Program, which operates within the museum and fulfills a national mandate.

The museum’s staff regularly contribute to the advancement of ethnography and museology by publishing in domestic and international academic journals, authoring monographs and collections of essays, and organizing and participating in academic conferences. The institution also plays a significant role as a publisher, contributing to the production of knowledge and the dissemination of information through 20–30 major publications annually—whether produced independently or in collaboration—including academic volumes, exhibition and artefact catalogs, online and print journals, yearbooks, comic books, children’s books, and more. – it contributes to the production of knowledge and the promotion of learning. The research conducted at the institution is also linked to the awarding of numerous doctoral and other academic degrees.

In addition to research and collection management, the museum considers fostering active and open relationships with visitors to be one of its primary missions. The institution aims to create a museum environment that is accessible and inclusive for everyone, where visitors from diverse social and cultural backgrounds can all find their own points of connection to the exhibitions and programs. When planning exhibitions, museum education programs, and community events, special attention is given to inclusivity, accessible design, and high-quality visitor services. Among the museum’s innovative public programs is “Let's Spend the Night at the Museum!,” recognized with a special award from the Children in Museums Award, which offers visitors a unique, experiential opportunity to explore the museum’s spaces and collections from a new perspective.

The Museum of Ethnography treats the objects in its collections not merely as historical documents, but as cultural heritage whose meanings are constantly being reinterpreted in the present. In the course of research and exhibition preparation, increasing emphasis is placed on collaboration with source communities—the communities represented in the collections. The museum’s researchers work in dialogue with these groups to uncover and interpret the history of the objects, striving to ensure that as many perspectives and experiences as possible are represented in the display.

Processing, digitizing, and making the collections publicly accessible are also among the museum’s fundamental tasks. Through its online database and digital services, which were updated in 2025, the Museum of Ethnography makes its collections accessible to researchers, communities, and the general public alike, contributing to a broader understanding of cultural heritage.

Through this approach, the Museum of Ethnography fulfills multiple roles: a scientific research institute, a site for the preservation of cultural heritage, and an important forum for intercultural dialogue.