The Museum of Ethnography was established on 5 March 1872, when János Xántus (1825–1894) was appointed to head the Ethnography Department of the Hungarian National Museum. During the museum’s history, the ethnographical collection, developed from the beginning of the 20^th century, was considered one of the finest of the National Museum. Researchers collected every manuscript, object, photograph, film, folk song and other oral text connected with folk culture. Likewise, several researchers, anthropologists and ethnographers who had travelled to foreign countries (Emil Torday and Sámuel Teleki in Africa, Lajos Bíró in New Guinea, Géza Róheim in Australia, Vilmos Diószegi in Siberia and Mongolia) returned and contributed to the Museum's international collections. At the beginning of the 1930s, the Museum of Ethnography supported major ethnographical projects, like the four-volume series The Ethnography of the Hungarians, and the Hungarian Folk Art series. At the end of the 1930s, the Ethnological Archives was established as part of the museum. The Museum of Ethnography itself gained independence from the National Museum in 1947. During socialism, the museum carried out several research projects, like those in Tiszaigar and Átány, where ethnographers could document peasant culture. During the Rákosi and Kádár eras many declassed people worked at the museum, including László Lajtha and Zsuzsanna Erdélyi. The museum's permanent exhibition, entitled “Folk Culture of the Hungarians”, shows the everyday life and festivals of the Hungarian peasantry. The highlights of the exhibition were collected between the end of the 18th century and World War II, from throughout Hungary.