In its present form the Maproom of War History was founded in 1954. The backbone of its total collection was made up of two sets of earlier materials:
- a collection of fifty thousand items rightfully belonging to Hungary was transferred from the War Archives /Kriegsarchiv/ of Vienna to the Royal Hungarian Archives of War History /later: War Archives/ after the First World War;
- a set of sixty thousand objects of the Royal Hungarian Cartographic Institute /later: Defence Mapping Institute/ was founded following the First World War.
The collection of the Maproom grew steadily partly by old maps /heritages, materials of other discontinued collections/, partly by new acquisitions /military map series, aerial photographs, other civil maps/. The total collection now numbers nearly 500.000. items /maps, atlases, globes, relief maps, professional journals, books, aerial photographs/, and by sheer size it constitutes the largest cartographic collection in Hungary.
Those military maps which were forbidden to give to the researchers, because they had "secret" qualifications, are free for research from 1992. Nowadays we have no classified maps in our Maproom.
Subdivision of the Cartographic Collection
The majority of maps are grouped according to the following geographical-regional divisions:
- maps of the heavens, of the world - historical, geographical atlases;
- maps of the continents
- maps of cities and their vicinities, travel guide books
- maps of war history - maps showing battles, campaigns, military events - are further grouped according to chronological order, following the classification of major historical epochs.
Within the territorial divisions there are the following thematic classes:
- general political, administrative maps
- physical maps
- special thematic maps
One of the most important parts of the collection of the Maproom is made up of the military series based on detailed field surveys, showing both Hungarian and foreign territories. In Hungary only the Maproom possesses complete series of the so-called first /1772-1784/, the second /1806-1869/ and the third military surveys /1869-1884/. The original coloured manuscript sheets of the first and second military surveys are kept in the Kriegsarchiv in Vienna. Until recently the Maproom has had black and white copies of the originals in the same size. At present the original is being photocopied in colour through the work of the Representative Office of the Hungarian Institute and Museum of War History in Vienna, in the Kriegsarchiv. Usefulness, aesthetic value of these copied maps are all but identical with those of the original ones. The work will be finished in this year. The collection consisting of the military series published by the Royal Hungarian Cartographic Institute, established after the First World War, can also be considered as complete, both for basic survey and derived scales. The Maproom's collecting interests also cover military series of different scales and publishing years published after the Second World War in a different mapping and projection /Gauss-Krüger/ system. The 120.000-piece collection of aerial photographs also has considerable value. A smaller part of them was made before the Second World War, while most of them are copies of air photos made for mapping purposes during the 1950s, '60s and '70s.
Basic registration arrangement of materials of the Maproom has been put into effect. Better orientation among materials is assisted by a recording system, various study aid tools and index maps which are continually actualized. Computer processing of the collection has also started. Lists of geographical names of most sheets have also been processed, alphabetically arranged and printed /close to 30.000 items/. Further plans call for the computerization of the complete recording system.
The collection grows by some 4-5 thousand new items yearly, a smaller part of them being old maps, new books and other publications, while most of them are deposit copies of military series.
The Maproom, as a public collection, is open to the public from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. from Monday to Tuesday. The number of research people is about 700-800 in a year. Black-and-white and colour photo and xerox copies of maps are available on order. The Maproom took part in the organization of different exhibitions of the War History Museum, by lending maps.
Publications /limited circulation/ of the Maproom in recent years include:
- Series of military maps of Hungary from 1782 to 1950 - study /manuscript/ -26 pp., 29 pp. supplements, 20. pp. maps
- Introduction to the Maproom of War History (MWH) - study- /manuscript/ -25 pp.
- Catalogue of Trianon border maps. 173 pp.
- Manuscript maps in the MWH /about 900/. 80 pp.
- Catalogue of the city and its vicinity maps of Budapest. 68 pp.
- Catalogue of the railway maps of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. 35. pp.
- War history maps referring to Hungary in the MWH. 30. pp.
- Maps of the 1848/49 Revolution and War of Liberation in the MWH. 80 pp.
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