Gheorghe Munteanu-Murgoci Ethnograpic Collection
On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the birth of Gheorghe Munteanu-Murgoci (July 20, 1872 - March 5, 1925), geologist, mineralogist and pedologist, prominent personality of the Romanian science and culture, we present some representative data and images from the Gheorghe Munteanu-Murgoci Ethnographic Collection, which is part of the heritage of the Transylvanian Museum of Ethnography.
Gheorghe Munteanu-Murgoci was a correspondent member of the Romanian Academy and one of the founders of the Institute of Southeastern European Studies in Bucharest.
He was born into a family of simple people, “Mocan” shepherds, Radu Murgoci from Bisoca, Râmnicu Sărat (Buzău) and Iustina from Dârstele Brașovului.
He attended “Nicolae Bălcescu” primary school and high school in his hometown, Brăila. After graduation, in 1892, he enrolled at the University of Bucharest, Departments of Mathematics and Physical-Chemical Sciences. Then he also attended the Higher Normal School, led by Alexandru Odobescu. Since his student years, he participated with Professor Ludovic Mrazec in the fieldwork organized by the latter in Dobrogea, Lotrului Mountains and the Parâng Massif, and together they published works in the fields of mineralogy, petrography, speleology and geography. After the student period, Gheorghe Murgoci graduated from doctoral studies abroad, first in Vienna (1897-1898), then in Germany, in Munich (1899), where he defended his doctorate in 1900. The doctoral thesis, entitled “Über die Einschlüsse von Granat-Vesuvianfels in dem Serpentin des Parângu-Massivs” (“On the garnet and vesuvianite inclusions in the serpentines from the Parâng massif”), received the Magna Cum Laude distinction.
He was the initiator of numerous study trips to the Alps, Great Britain and America.
In 1903, he defended his doctoral thesis at the University of Bucharest, with the work “Succinite deposits in Romania”. He was foreman at the Mineralogy Laboratory in Bucharest, teacher at the “Saints Apostles Peter and Paul” High School in Ploiesti, at “Gheorghe Lazăr” High School in Bucharest, chief geologist of the Institute of Geology in Bucharest and professor of geography at the National School of Bridges and Roads, transformed into a Polytechnic School.
He participated in numerous congresses and conferences in the country and abroad. The work of Gheorghe Munteanu-Murgoci includes over 200 books and articles in the fields of: geography, mineralogy, petrography, tectonics, geology, pedology and hydrology.
He was selected to manage and reorganize the Institute of Mineralogy and Petrography of the University of Cluj (at the proposal of the Governing Council). Thus, he carried out his activity in Cluj-Napoca for 1 year (1919-1920).
He was a professor at the University of Superior Dacia in Cluj. He made the first syllabus of courses and practical works in mineralogy.
Together with his wife, Agnes Kelly Murgoci, a biochemist by training, he gathered an impressive collection of ethnographic objects of which an important part was donated to the Ethnographic Museum in Cluj-Napoca.
Agnes Kelly was born in Australia and she came from a Scottish family. She studied in England and got her doctorate in biochemistry in Munich, where she met Gheorghe Munteanu-Murgoci. A lover of Romanian folklore, traveling with her husband around the country, she collected incantations, fairy tales, riddles, and published them in the famous British magazine “Folklore”, but she also collected traditional objects.
The Gheorghe Munteanu-Murgoci donation is one of the private collections of the Transylvanian Museum of Ethnography, entered in the museum’s patrimony in 1925, and along with the large number of field acquisitions during research campaigns, represent the museums’s documentary background.
Emanoil Bucuța, in the article “the Ethnographic park from Hoia” (Wheat grains, 1931, II/12), reported on the collection:
“I was lucky enough to take one of the most tender, if not more precious, to Cluj and hand it over to the Museum. It’s about the ethnographic collection left after the death of Murgoci, uneven in scientific value, but varied and autobiographical. The most uncoupled or exotic things spoke of regional travels and the explorer’s insatiable passion. The geology was too tight and dead. Man had to cover it with his life. The scientist put down the rock hammer and mingled with the others. His skillfully sewn sleeves were like so many arms outstretched to embrace and hold him. The collection was awaiting reception at the Geological Institute. I did it on behalf of the Prince Carol Cultural Foundation, at Mrs. Murgoci’s initiative, soon after and only as if waiting, withdrawn to England, her native country, who perished in a car accident. I took to Cluj and incorporated into the Museum not only inventory numbers, but also bleeding fragments of the history of Romanian culture”.
The collection includes 1,534 pieces and it’s made up of the following categories of objects: textile objects (traditional shirt, scarves, kerchiefs, skirts, head pieces, belts, carpets, huckabacks, pouches, a great number of textile fragments with stitch patterns on shirts ), wooden objects (liquid containers, spoons, etc.), ceramics (jugs, cups, plates). The collection also includes extra-continental objects (oracle, bow, arrows, compass, umbrella, baskets, etc.).
In this first presentation, we are exhibiting excerpts from the original lists of the donation and some artifacts from the collection.
We will return with posts related to the Gheorghe Munteanu-Murgoci Collection, and the physical exhibition is part of the 2023 Exhibition Calendar.
(Bibliography: Aftodor, Ștefan, Pascu, Gabriel, Din viața și activitatea lui Gheorghe Munteanu-Murgoci, Edit. Proilavia, Brăila, 2020; Bucuța, Emanoil, Parcul etnografic de la Hoia, Boabe de grâu 1931, II/12; Murgoci, Constantin, Itinerar fotografic în viața și opera lui Gheorghe Munteanu-Murgoci; https://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gheorghe_Munteanu-Murgoci).
Photo legend:
- Gheorghe Munteanu-Murgoci (1872 - 1925)
- Gheorghe Munteanu-Murgociand his wife Agnes, in 1904
- Extract from the original list of objects from the Gheorghe Munteanu-Murgoci Collection
- Extract from the original list of objects from the Gheorghe Munteanu-Murgoci Collection
- Extract from the list of objects of the Gheorghe Munteanu-Murgoci Collection
- Ceapsă, Cornereva, Banat, no. inv. 1334
- Ceapsă, Gorj, Oltenia, no. inv. 1476
- Năframa, unknown provenance, no. 1341
- Opreg, Serbia, no. inv. 1329
- Shell with drawings of saints, unknown provenance, no. inv. 1224
- Shell necklace, unknown provenance, no. inv. 1230
- Clay cup, Ada Kaleh (?)/ Vâlcea (?), no. inv. 1250
- Cana, California (?), no. inv. 1253
Text: Anca Mocan - museologist, Anca Zahaniciuc - museologist
Photo: George Ciupag - museologist MET, photo-video
To see the photos, plese follow the link:
https://www.muzeul-etnografic.ro/ro/albume/foto/colectia-murgoci