Mihaly Munkacsi Museum was founded in Békéscsaba in 1899. Since the opening, the museum has already had multiple precious pieces of art. Till the year 1950, the historically valuable items were sorted in two collections, which we can hardly call “collections” today – most of the items are kept in an archive with archeological exhibits.
In 1900, the museum got a collection of postage stamps, outstanding because of its uniqueness. Relics have been collected from the opening of the museum: in 1900, the widow of the Austrian-Hungarian composer Ferenz Erkel gave some artifacts, used by her husband, to the Association of Museums. These items included his desk and punch. After the beginning of the First World War, the growth of the collection reduced. The staff affirms that some items of previous times do not belong to the museum anymore.
Now the historic collection consists of 6800 items, and the whole number of documents, including the objects of the literature history, is more than 51000. The main part of them belonged to Békéscsaba and its surroundings.
The most precious thing about the documents’ collection is manuscripts with a historic value – having no more than 3 exemplars. Among them – an inheritance agreement of the second half of the 19th century, old handwritten maps, and photos of settlements, events, and centenarians. In addition to the personal documents, there are valuable posters, newspapers, postcards. The collection of flags has more than 60 items, including colored, embroidered, corporate and family flags of the 19th century.
The important part of the museum items is a so-called Munkacsi collection, which contains personal things of the painter, paintings, folk-art items, and materials, related to his funeral. Among the documents, the institution keeps the engravings of Munkacsi, photos of him and his friends, and the pictures of his paintings.