Hungarian Museum of Trade and Tourism

The Hungarian Museum of Trade and Tourism is a national professional museum, whose collection scope includes the cultural heritage of domestic trade (retail and wholesale, commodity markets, international trade, financial trade, insurance and gambling), the hospitality industry (hotel industry, other hospitality establishments), as well as the history of tourism and travel. From July 1, 2024 it operates as a member institution of the National Museum of Hungary Public Collections Center.

The institution, established in 1966 – unique worldwide – with a national collecting scope, began its operation in a patinated former Fortuna inn building in the Buda Castle Quarter, a part of the World Heritage, named after the street, where it functioned until the summer of 2005. From September 2006 to June 2011 it operated in the 5th district, next to St. Stephen's Basilica, in the former Hungarian Foreign Trade Bank building. Since the autumn of 2011 it has welcomed visitors in the old “ground‑floor” Óbuda centre, in the former house of Gyula Krúdy, at 1 Korona Square.

Predecessor

“This Museum occupies in commercial sciences the same place as, for example, geology, mineralogy and paleontology museums occupy in the service of natural science. It is tasked with caring for tools by which business can be practically studied” – Mór Gelléri[source?]

The first Hungarian Museum of Trade was created in 1886 in the City Park's Industry Hall after the model of Brussels. Its role and task was to present the industrial and export goods produced by our country in order to promote the development of trade. At the invitation of State Secretary Sándor Matlekovits, 671 companies handed over product samples for museum purposes, and also provided a significant financial base for its operation. From 1889 the museum was run by a committee under the supervision of the ministry. At that time the exhibition and inquiry offices were organized both at home and abroad, and the museum specialist library named after Mórr Wahrmann was established. The new museum was very popular.

For the 1896 Millennial Exhibition, the historical memories of trade were also collected. Trade tokens, merchant chests, measuring instruments, business documents, packaging and advertising materials were placed in the museum. The paintings and contemporary objects were supplemented with furnishing reconstruction. Models, dioramas, and also scenes with puppets were presented in the modern exhibition. The museum was housed in the Industry Hall built in 1885.

In 1899 the museum became a fully state institution, at which time it officially received the name Hungarian Royal Museum of Trade. In 1906 it moved to a new location at 3 Akadémia Street.

After the First World War the life of the museum changed fundamentally, and its significance decreased because of the country's economic and territorial losses. The exhibitions were discontinued, and the institution was dissolved between 1920 and 1923. In 1923 the historical material, consisting of 856 items, was transferred to the Hungarian National Museum's coin and antiquities collection. The later successor, the Hungarian Museum of Trade and Hospitality, inherited nothing from the collection, but since 1970, driven by a noble purpose, it continues the earlier traditions.

Foundation

The founding of the Hungarian Museum of Trade and Hospitality was preceded by several attempts. The idea of creating gastronomy‑history museums can be traced back to the end of the 19th century. In addition to the private collection of Frigyes Glück (1858‑1931), a leading representative of the Hungarian hotel and hospitality industry, after World War I the Hotelists and Restaurateurs Industry Association preserved a significant collection of hospitality equipment, menu and food‑service cards, and photographs for a museum to be established.

The museum initially collected only memorabilia of hospitality industry history, then in 1970 expanded with a collection of trade history. The institution performs industrial history museum tasks and meets professional museological requirements.

The trade‑history material collection consists of company signs, company nameplates, shop fittings and equipment, work tools and scales, the material objects of commercial administration, product samples, packaging boxes and glasses, souvenir and advertising items, etc. The documentation collection contains document‑ and archive‑type material, shop books, invoices, price lists. Both professionals and private individuals are interested in its advertising prints (posters, price tags, leaflets).

The hospitality‑history material collections include the furnishings and equipment, work tools of restaurant and pastry production and sales. Among the serving, eating and drinking utensils, those items that bear the emblem of a particular hospitality venue (coffee house, pastry shop, hotel, etc.) represent a special professional‑historical value. The most numerous group of the documentation collection is made up of menus and menu cards. In number smaller, but of equal value, are the document‑ and archive material and the collection of small printed items.

The museum’s historical material is complemented by a fine‑arts, numismatic collection and a photo archive related to the profession. The institution has a specialized library for trade history, hospitality industry and insurance history.

Jelene

The museum’s collecting area covers the whole country and – taking international agreements into account – every point in the world where the relevant memorabilia can be found. Its task is to locate, collect, preserve, professionally catalogue, manage, conserve and protect cultural assets (material, visual, written, audio and other source material) belonging to its collecting scope and the information of cultural value associated with them; furthermore to scientifically process and systematize them, publish the scientific results, and present all of this in exhibitions and other forms, utilising it to support public education.