Osječki zbornik, Vol. Vol. 29 No. xx, 2009.
Original scientific paper
Natural - history collection of the Royal general- program secondary school in Osijek
Sanja Vidović
; Museum of Slavonia Osijek, Osijek, Croatia
Abstract
This paper deals with emergence and development
of a large and significant secondary-school collection, the
natural-history collection of the Royal general-programme
secondary school in Osijek, since its foundation in 1870
until 1939. Annual secondary-school reports served as a
fundamental source.
Secondary-school collection comprised 922 mineral
samples in 1872, 140 sea plant samples and 264 stuffed bird
samples and other animals. Natural history collection was
founded as a result of individual gifts, redemption amounts
and also by gathering materials during school excursions.
Among givers the most numerous were secondaryschool
pupils and their professors and many Osijek citizens.
The High royal national government, National mineralogical-
geological museum in Zagreb and others excelled
as givers. Donations were mostly single samples or lesser
groups and some givers gave more dozens of natural items.
From the school year 1876/77 natural-history classroom
devices were classified according to scientific disciplines
into the zoological, botanical and mineralogical collection.
Natural-history collection comprised 419 animal samples,
383 plant samples and 754 mineral samples in 1877. Since
1879/80 the number of natural-history pictures was also added
along with the number of each specific collection and
since 1887/88 a number of particular collection was perused
from the teaching aid collection.
A radical decline of the sample number of naturalhistory
collection started in the school year of 1894/95 and
continued in 1896/97 and was over in the school year of
1897/98. In that period the number of mineralogical and
geological samples diminished from 1008 to 248 samples
and zoological samples from 793 to 292. In the observed
period the botanical collection enlarged immensely but until
the end of the period it diminished to a nearly starting
sample amount. The total value of natural-history collection
in the late 19th and the early 20th centuries was 2082
kruna and 18 forint. Since 1935/36 the natural-history collection
was arranged separately for the Zoological, Botanical,
Mineralogical and Geological collection and from next
year for Anthropological collection when the teaching aids
were divided into natural preparations, models and pictures
within specific collections. Last actual data of main natural-
history collection number shows that in 1938/39 the
collection comprised a total of 998 samples : Anthropology
: 14 natural preparations, 14 models and 3 pictures, Zoology
: 227 natural preparations, 1 model and 111 pictures,
Botany : 60 natural preparations, 30 models, 40 pictures, 7
microscopes, 70 microscope kits and 1 plant press, Mineralogy
: 238 minerals, 23 models and instruments and Geology:
95 stone samples, 18 fossils and 46 pictures.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
95660
URI
Publication date:
20.5.2010.
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