MUSEUM OF THE SANDOMIERZ REGION:GENESIS AND DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

The Museum of the Sandomierz Region wasone of the more thriving tourism-and-sightseeing-relatedinstitutions of the Second Polish Republic. The paper’s aimis to show the history of its establishment and developmentin the first years of its operation, previously in literatureshown only in very general terms, without resorting to allthe sources. The first historic piece: an urn excavated closeto Linów was donated for the collection by AleksanderPatkowski nicknamed ‘father of Polish regionalism’.An attempt is made to reconstruct the foundation ofthe Museum’s first collection. Table 1 shows the dynamicsof the acquisitions in subsequent years. Apart from singledonations, Museum’s heritage pieces came from amateurexcavations or individual donors, and with time artefacts wereprovided mainly by professional archaeological research. Theartefacts were considered worthy of display, that is why, in1921, the Museum was opened in a provisional facility. In 1923,a catalogue of the archaeological collection was published.The Museum proved to be successful logistically and interms of tourism and regionalism, this demonstrated by theturnout in the first years of its operation shown in Table 2. Theproblem of the lack of Museum’s permanent seat was solvedthrough acquiring a plot of land and having its own premisesraised. The story of the opening of the seat of the branch ofthe Polish Tourist and Sightseeing Society, PTK, and of theMuseum of the Sandomierz Region in 1925 is presented inthe paper. It was the first in Poland building owned by PTK,and the Museum took up much of its space. The processof organizing the institution climaxed with a permanentexhibition having been opened to the public. The Museumof the Sandomierz Region was the fourteenth institution ofthe type run by PTK after 1918. In the 1930s, it turned intoan icon of Polish tourism-and-sightseeing-related museology,while the presented reconstruction of its beginning revealsnumerous facts from the history of the activity of Polishsociety in the independent state.