The Legacy of Kazimierz Michałowski in the Archives of the National Museum in Warsaw

Abstrakt

This article discusses the archival legacy of the distinguished archaeologist and Egyptologist Kazimierz Michałowski (1901–1981), founder of the Polish school of Mediterranean archaeology, whose nachlass is stored in the Archives of the National Museum in Warsaw. Before the war, Michałowski built the Department of Ancient Art at the National Museum in Warsaw, where he served as deputy director from 1945 to 1981. He also founded and headed the Polish Academy of Sciences’ Research Centre for Mediterranean Archaeology. Michałowski’s most notable professional success was the discovery of monumental early Christian wall paintings at Faras, which he brought to the National Museum in Warsaw in 1964 pursuant to a formal agreement between Poland and Sudan. He published extensively on his excavation work and research concerning ancient and early Christian art. Prof. Michałowski’s legacy is kept in the Archives of the National Museum in Warsaw, divided into seven thematic groups supplemented with appendices. The first group comprises articles and other writings on classical archaeology as well as excerpts from literature and notes from the professor’s pre-war university work. The second group comprises materials of organizational, academic, publishing and didactic activities that illustrate Michałowski’s work at Jan Kazimierz University in Lviv, Józef Piłsudski University in Warsaw, and the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology in Cairo, among others. The third group contains biographical materials such as personal and professional documents. Correspondence (the fourth group) attests to the professor’s exceptionally numerous contacts with museologists and archaeologists from around the world. Materials documenting Michałowski’s life as a team leader and family man (the fifth and sixth groups) include a caricature, portrait photographs, eulogies, and documents of his daughter Małgorzata as well as those of his brother, Marian, who had lost his life in the Second World War. Completing the collection are materials of other people and appendices (the seventh and eighth groups), among which are works and articles on archaeology, as well as materials published alongside the professor’s articles.