Commemorating the 100 anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Trianon, on June 4, the Budapest-based National Széchényi Library made available to the public a database with more than 10,000 archive photos. The first two collections the library chose to publish depict moments during World War I and of Transylvanian life after Trianon.
According to the press release, the National Széchényi Library (the former Library of the Hungarian National Museum) has been collecting photos of World War I ever since August 1914. In the newly published collection, one can find works of renowned photographers such as János Müllner, (1870-1925), Rudolf Balogh (1879-1944) and Mór Erdélyi (1866-1934), as well as pictures taken by amateur photographers. Most of the works are magnifications, and there are some glass plates and diapositives among them as well.
Many of the war photos depict moments of the soldiers’ days in the field camps, their marches to and among the front lines, and the construction of camps. There are also photos of the battles and their dramatic consequences, including scenes in hospitals, cemeteries, the wounded and invalids.
Other pictures depict moments of the daily lives of the civilian population, mementos of the poverty, deprivation and devastation people of the hinterland had to face during the war. Some photos show women engaged in hospitals, others immortalize children and soldiers, while some document war propaganda.
Young soldiers in the trenches. Place unknown.
Source: fototer.oszk.hu
The second collection is the work of the distinguished Transylvanian photographer Dénes Szabó; the institution managed to collect more than 3,000 glass and cellulose negatives from his legacy. He took most of the photos published as an associate of the Fotofilm Studio in Kolozsvár – mainly city sights and landscapes for postcards edited by the firm.
The already captioned post card negatives, prepared for reprography depict Transylvanian villages, cities, important buildings and baths in the third and fourth decade of the 20th century. The series also documents popular costumes, scenes from the everyday lives of cities and villages, and photographic records of family and society events; through these photos, the viewer can relate to the mundane atmosphere of Transylvania in the period between the two World Wars. As the Library has published the entire life work of Dénes Szabó (1907-1982), the photo gallery contains a series of his photos taken in Kárpátalja (the region attached after Trianon to Ukraine) and in Berlin as well.
The National Széchényi Library continues to develop the database and plans to publish more collections. The library also welcomes all additional information people may have regarding the scenes and places depicted in the photos. The database can be viewed at https://fototer.oszk.hu/ website.
Title image: Transylvanian photographer Dénes Szabó immortalized scenes and people in the 1930-40s. This image captures a wedding procession in Torockó, 1933.
Source: fototer.oszk.hu
