Posters Of Hungary

The Hungarian National Museum

Last Saturday was the Ides of March, which is important if you are Julius Caesar, or if you are Hungarian. For the latter, March 15 is the anniversary of the Revolution of 1848. I wrote about that here so I will not get into the specifics, but to commemorate the occasion there are marches, speeches, and free admission for a few museums.

Despite living around the corner from the Hungarian National Museum, I have never visited it. I took advantage of the fact of the free admission and dropped in for a visit.

The museum's collection is dedicated to the general history of Hungary with archaeological relics and artifacts – a whole lot of goodies stretching from the Hungary's settlement by the Magyars in 895 to the fall of communism. 

Going through the museum is quite a treat. One thing did stand out in particular: they have an amazing collection of old advertising and propaganda posters from the pre-World War I days and onward into the 1920s.

Most of the labels were in Hungarian, so they are a little out of context for me, but I thought they were very interesting. Behold, my not-so-good museum photography skills:

Tungsram is an old, but huge Hungarian light bulb company.

Translation: 'West'

'The horror of modern war'
It's tough to see, I know, but those are people that
Skeletor is loading into the cannon

'Republic!'

'Scoundrels! Is this what you wanted?'

'Red soldiers advance'

Old timey cigarette advertising

Water... Step... Bankruptcy....