SCHOOL MUSEUMS IN THE KINGDOM OF POLAND – IDENTIFICATION OF MAIN ISSUES

• Authors: Tołysz, Aldona

Abstracts

EN

School museums – which had been founded mostly in the vicinity of educational institutions – used to collect teaching aids. So-called natural history cabinets were the most popular among them, recommended, inter alia, by the Commission of National Education in 1783. The tradition of collecting this type of exhibits was common until the middle of the 20th century. There are two types to be distinguished: school museums and pedagogical museums, which differ with respect to the character of their activity and the kind of exhibits. School museums collected basically objects of natural science, instruments for teaching geography, chemistry and mathematics as well as prints and facilities used during lessons. The second group also specialised in exhibits of natural science, but they were no longer used and usually of higher scientific value, including patterns and examples known in the education system. Among the earliest school museums created in the Kingdom of Poland were Warsaw collections of the Institute for Deaf and Blind People (1875), and those of the Eugeniusz Babiński’s so-called Realschule. At the beginning of the 20th century the idea was spreading, inspired inter alia by the exemplary activity of the Polish School Museum in Lviv (1903). The biggest number of school museums and collections were created in institutions founded by the Polish Educational Society (1906–1907). The survived resources give us relatively detailed information about the collections from Warsaw and Pabianice, which aspired to be categorised as pedagogical museums. The Secondary School for Boys of the Merchants Association in Łódź and the Pedagogical Museum in Warsaw (1917) had also in their possession some interesting collections. The latter one was based upon the collections of former governmental schools, in which – in accordance with a decree issued by Russian authorities – the scientific exhibits were to be collected.

Keywords

EN

school museum; pedagogical museum; Polish Educational Society; cabinet of natural science; Kingdom of Poland

• Publisher: Krajowy Ośrodek Badań i Dokumentacji Zabytków
• Journal: Muzealnictwo
• Year: 2018
• Volume: 59
• Pages: 39-47

Dates

published

2018-04-16

Contributors

author

Tołysz, Aldona

Identifiers

DOI

10.5604/01.3001.0011.7615