Leon Kozłowski (1892-1944), the outstanding prehistorian, soldier, and politician, was connected with Kraków from the beginning of his studies until he obtained his postdoctoral degree. He studied natural sciences and then archaeology at the Jagiellonian University while being also an unofficial assistant at the Archaeological Museum of the Academy of Arts and Sciences in Kraków. The Academy appointed him to explore Lusatian cemeteries near Tarnobrzeg, to excavate a Palaeolithic site in Jaksice (former Miechów district), megalithic graves in Kuyavia, and the Mammoth Cave in the Polish Jura. He collected materials for the Academy during a scientific expedition to the Crimea and the Caucasus organized by Robert Rudolf Schmidt (1882-1950) from the University of Tübingen. During the First World War, Kozłowski joined the Polish Legions and was thus involved in the struggle for Polish independence. He moved to Warsaw to write his doctoral thesis based on the collection of the Erazm Majewski Museum and then defended it in Tübingen. After he gained his postdoctoral degree in Kraków, he took the chair of prehistory in Lwów/Lviv and his contacts with the Jagiellonian University and the Academy of Arts and Sciences in Kraków came to a close. It was only in 1935 that he was elected a corresponding member of the Academy.
During many years of scientific activity, Józef Łepkowski (1826-1894), archaeologist, the first Polish professor of this discipline and protector of monuments, looked after the collections belonging to the Krakow Scientific Society (the predecessor of the Academy of Arts and Sciences), the Jagiellonian University, and the Czartoryski dukes for whom he acquired the collection items. The archaeological artifacts, works of art, works of artistic craftsmanship, collections of weapons, and other artifacts obtained by him constitute a valuable part of the resources of Krakow institutions to this day. The article shows the methods by which, in the 19th century, objects were acquired for state institutions, scientific societies and large, aristocratic collections. The author takes as an example the fate of the collections of Karol Rogawski (1820-1888) and Bolesław Podczaszyński (1822-1876). Encouraged by Łepkowski, Rogawski donated the book collection, archaeological artifacts, and works of art and crafts to the Jagiellonian University and the Czartoryski dukes. However, a specialized part of Podczaszyński’s collection - archaeological artifacts with notes on prehistoric finds from the territory of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth - was purchased by the Academy of Arts and Sciences as a result of Łepkowski’s efforts. Therefore, thanks to the long and complicated measures taken by this tireless researcher, museum expert, and protector of monuments, the collections survived in their entirety to the present day, avoiding the dispersion to which many other private 19th-century collections were subjected.
Contacts between Erazm Majewski (1858¬1922), a versatile scientist, the founder of the archaeologi¬cal museum in Warszawa, the publisher and editor of the “Światowit” journal, and Włodzimierz Demetrykiewicz (1859-1937), the curator of the Archaeological Museum of the Akademia Umiejętności (“Academy of Arts and Sciences”) in Kraków, a secretary of its Anthropological Commission, and later a professor of prehistoric archaeolo¬gy at the Jagiellonian University, commenced in 1895. From the very beginning of their acquaintance the scientists exchanged information and publications concern¬ing archaeology as well as opinions on the subject. Majewski sent to Kraków volumes of“Światowit” he published, while Demetrykiewicz sent publications of the AU he edited. In 1899, Majewski, on Demetrykiewicz’s suggestion, was elect¬ed a collaborator of the Anthropological Commission of the AU. Majewski was never deeply involved in the work of the Kraków institution, but he kept in touch with it. The evidence of which were the books he donated to its col¬lection, as well as works presented on its forum referring not only to archaeology, but also philosophy and sociology. Demetrykiewicz supported the activity of the scientist from Warszawa and treated him as an ally in his striving for improving the importance of prehistory as a scientific discipline in Polish science. The correspondence of both scientists reflects the echoes of a polemics of Majewski with the opinions of a German archaeologist, Gustaf Kossinna (1858-1931), the creator of the ethnic interpretation of archaeological finds. Demetrykiewicz shared the critical attitude of Majewski towards Kossinna’s theses. However, a totally different view on the issue was represented by Karol Hadaczek (1873-1914), a professor in Lwów. Disputes between the scientists did not concern only scientific issues. Theses of Kossinna and his opponents were also interpreted in their ideological aspect to which contemporary politics was not indifferent. Majewski and Demetrykiewicz also got in touch in matters concerning their students. Majewski gathered a group of young scientists, later to become eminent Polish archaeologists, to which belonged Leon Kozłowski (1892¬1944), Marian Himner (1887-1916), Stefan Krukowski (1890-1982) and Ludwik Sawicki (1893-1972). They also used to come to Kraków where, in the Museum ofthe AU, they familiarised themselves with prehistoric artefacts. Leon Kozłowski, later a professor of prehistoric archaeolo¬gy in Lwów and the Prime Minister of Poland, began his studies in Kraków with Demetrykiewicz as one of his tutors. Throughout his stay in Kraków, he kept in touch with Erazm Majewski with whom he cooperated until 1919. The end of World War I and the first years after Poland regained its independence, were a period of heated discussions carried by a group of Polish prehistorians and concerning the issue of organisation of prehistory as a scientific discipline, museology and protection of archaeological monuments. In the new reality Demetrykiewicz and Majewski, as the doyens of Polish archaeologists, faced several vital tasks and challenges. In 1919, after his return to Kraków, Demetrykiewicz resumed his work at the Academy (at that time already called Polska Akademia Umiejętności - “Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences”) and at the Jagiellonian University. Majewski, on the other hand, after the war received a proposal to take the chair of prehistoric archaeology at the University of Warsaw. A positive recommendation by Demetrykiewicz, for many years a professor at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, was of great significance for Majewski’s appointment as professor. At the beginnings of independence regained by Poland, Majewski and Demetrykiewicz exchanged observa¬tions concerning young archaeologists. Since seriously ill Majewski could not run lectures in person, they both debated who could fill in the chair of archaeology at Warsaw in future. Demetrykiewicz was also interested in the fate of the archaeological museum founded by Majewski, and its then difficult situation. In their correspondence both scientists also discussed questions concerning organisation of protection of archaeological monuments. Erazm Majewski died in November 1922. His co-operation with Włodzimierz Demetrykiewicz and the Kraków centre for prehistoric research encompassed the period of over twenty-five years. Those contacts were the most intensive at the initial and final stage of their acquaintance, when both scientists were linked by increased efforts concerning the issue of organisation of prehistory in Poland. At the turn of the 19th and 20th c., during the period of the Partitions of Poland, and later at the beginning of the independence regained by Poland, establishing the organisational and institutional framework for museology and protection of archaeological monuments, and partially filling the posts at departments of prehistory at universities, constituted crucial issues for both scientists. Contacts between Erazm Majewski and Włodzimierz Demetrykiewicz, lasting for more than a quarter of a century, did not result in any important scientific or editorial enterprises undertaken together. In certain periods, however, they had a significant influence on the functioning of archaeological centres in Warszawa and Kraków.
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