The Man Giving the Name to the Museum: Ferenc Kubinyi
(b. Videfalva 1796 – d. Budapest 1874)
The Kubinyis was a noble family in the former Nógrád County. The person giving his name to the museum was Ferenc Kubinyi, an educated lawyer. From 1823 he took part in the so-called Reform Parliament. In the 1840's he took an active role in the political battles of Nógrád on the side of the liberal opposition. During the Hungarian War of Independence in 1848-49 was he a supporter of the Battyhányi-government later that of Lajos Kossuth.
After the war was put down by the Habsburg's, Ferenc Kubinyi was convicted and later sent into exile to his properties in Tázlár. There he lived until the amnesty of 1852.
In 1862 he and two other scientists took a journey to Constantinople to analise (analyse?) and to try get back the so called Corvinas (The library of King Matthew). After his return he carried on with his scientific work. He was member in the association of the Hungarian medicines, president of the Hungarian Geology Association and corresponding member of the Hungarian Academy of Science. His publications dealt with archaeology, geology and palaeontology. The first archaeological excavations in Nógrád County were conducted by him in Kisterenye–Hársas and Karancslapújtő–Pókahegy. It was Ferenc Kubinyi who explored the fossil site at Ipolytarnóc — he also was the first to write about the basalt formations at Somoskő and Salgó.
