In this paper, the author introduces the collections of the secondary grammar school
in Kalocsa. The author researches: (1) the subjects that the formal collections were
created to facilitate teaching, (2) what their purpose was, (3) the manner in which
these collections were accumulated, and (4) how they were used. The annually published
school yearbooks provided the main sources of this research. As a method, we applied
historic document analysis. The value of teaching natural sciences was amplified in
the course of the 19th century, primarily in its second half, as a result of industrial
modernisation. Thus, a number of natural scientific subjects were taught on an obligatory
basis (natural history, geography, physics, chemistry). Studying these subjects was
facilitated by the collections, which were also established in this grammar school
– besides the collections of humanities such as the historical one. The mineralogical
collection constituted the most outstanding one in the Kalocsa secondary grammar school,
but its animal and plant collection also burgeoned. Behind these outstanding collections
stood one or other Jesuit teachers, who were driven, besides the aim of teaching,
by the desire of scientific understanding. Among the Jesuits in Hungary, just as in
other countries, the interest in natural sciences escalated. The collections grew
during the study tours announced for students, in the course of the curators’ acquisition
excursions, and also as a result of donations, purchases and exchanges. Following
the state appropriation, the material of the Kalocsa caches was dispersed.