Emilia Zathureczky ( Olasztelek, 21 October 1823 – Imecsfalva, 5 November 1905) was a Hungarian artifact collector, the founder of the Székely National Museum and helper of revolutionary fighters.

Life and work

Emilia was born to István Zathureczky Zaturcsai (1795–1875) and Juliánna Tasnádi Nagy (1799–1878) who was a relative of the linguist-historian Gyula Nagy Tasnádi. Emilia was an educated child who learned Latin. From an early age, she enjoyed books, antiques, medals, and

Stone Age The Stone Age was a broad prehistory, prehistoric period during which Rock (geology), stone was widely used to make stone tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years and ended b ...

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

and other items she found while collecting. During the 1848–1849 revolution and

War of Independence Wars of national liberation, also called wars of independence or wars of liberation, are conflicts fought by nations to gain independence. The term is used in conjunction with wars against foreign powers (or at least those perceived as foreign) ...

, she gave money and jewelry to equip the national defense, embroidered flag ribbons and made lace. After the War of Independence, she hid fighters and helped them escape. In 1875, she founded the Székely National Museum in Sepsiszentgyörgy with Gyula Nagy Vasady. She created the basic collections and became its single most significant contributor until her final years. According to the Székely National Museum:

She donated to the Society of Fine Arts (Szekler ornaments, embroideries, other objects), she was the first collector of the Transylvanian Carpathian Association's Museum of Landscape and Ethnography, she contributed the bulk of the material from Szeklerland (in 1901, 300 of the 1,600 objects in the museum). She collected gentleman's embroideries, the three-tiered embroideries with scratched ornaments, bowls with human, animal and floral decorations, various thread-count and free-form embroideries; she concentrates on the beautifully decorated, representative pieces.

A community benefactor, in 1876 she raised funds for the benefit of flood victims. Between 1878 and 1879, she was the founding president of the Women's Charity of Sepsiszentgyörgy, which maintained the

Háromszék county Háromszék (''Three Seats''; Romanian: ''Trei Scaune'') was an administrative county (Comitatus (Kingdom of Hungary), comitatus) of the Kingdom of Hungary. Situated in south-eastern Transylvania, its territory is now in central Romania (in the c ...

poorhouse between 1886 and 1897. The objects in the Cserey Museum were placed in the care of the Mikó Székely College (1879–1913). Zathureczky died in 1905 and is buried in the Kézdivásárhely cemetery (now part of Romania).

Legacy

Zathureczky founded or supported several institutions: * Beneficial Women's Association of Sfântu Gheorghe * Háromszék county poorhouse * Sepsiszentgyörgy women's industrial school * Háromszék County Erzsébet orphanage * Stefánia Asylum * Rudolf Hospital

Family

In 1841, Emilia married a church caretaker János Cserey (1817–1875) and was widowed in 1875. They had six children: Balázs (1844–1869), Gizella (1848–1850), István (1849–1860), Ákos (1856–1905) member of the county committee, Gyula (1857–1883) and Mihály (1865–1872). Emilia's younger brother, Károly Zathureczky (1832–1889), compiled a "serious medal collection and donated it to the Cluj Museum Association."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zathureczky, Emilia 1823 births 1905 deaths Hungarian collectors Hungarian revolutionaries Museologists Women collectors People from Austria-Hungary People from the Austrian Empire