The Feleky Collection, acquired by the
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...
in 1953, consists of more than 10,000 books and 15,000 periodical issues, including biographical files, newspaper clippings, questionnaires and other materials on approximately 920 Hungarian Americans, plus photographs, prints, music scores, maps,
broadsides and posters, recordings, and manuscripts.
History
The collection was started by Charles Feleky as an effort to collect everything published in the English
language
Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of met ...
about Hungary. Feleky was born in Budapest in 1863, but came to the United States in 1885 as a musician. Later, he conducted the music for plays, especially an itinerant production of ''Ben Hur''. Feleky's fascination with Hungary and Hungarian history began after he purchased a book about
Lajos Kossuth
Lajos Kossuth de Udvard et Kossuthfalva (, hu, udvardi és kossuthfalvi Kossuth Lajos, sk, Ľudovít Košút, anglicised as Louis Kossuth; 19 September 1802 – 20 March 1894) was a Hungarian nobleman, lawyer, journalist, poli ...
, leader of
Hungary
Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...
after the
Hungarian Revolution of 1848
The Hungarian Revolution of 1848 or fully Hungarian Civic Revolution and War of Independence of 1848–1849 () was one of many European Revolutions of 1848 and was closely linked to other revolutions of 1848 in the Habsburg areas. Although th ...
. Over the course of next several years Charles Feleky would develop a network of book dealers in the United States, Canada, England, Ireland, British Africa, India and Australia who would send him copies of books written in English about Hungary and Hungarians. His apartment in New York became his library.
After his death, his wife sold the floor-to-ceiling collection to the
Hungarian National Museum
The Hungarian National Museum ( hu, Magyar Nemzeti Múzeum) was founded in 1802 and is the national museum for the history, art, and archaeology of Hungary, including areas not within Hungary's modern borders, such as Transylvania; it is not to ...
, which established the Hungarian Reference Library in New York. By then, the Feleky library covered many academic disciplines. When Hungary declared war on the United States in 1941, the collection was seized by the U.S.
Office of Alien Property and put into
storage, where it remained until purchased by the Library of Congress in 1953 for $2,000.00.
Guide to Feleky Collection Published (December 11, 1995) – Library of Congress Information Bulletin
/ref>
This book ''History of the Feleky Collection and Its Acquisition by the Library of Congress'' may be read online at the Hathi Trust site:
http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015034923154
References
*Nyirady, Kenneth. (1995) ''The History of the Feleky Collection,'' Washington D.C.: ibrary of CongressEuropean Division.
External links
Library of Congress
{{LOC-stub