Description of the attraction
The Ethnographic Museum in Warsaw is one of the oldest museums of its kind in Poland, founded in 1888. The Ethnographic Museum was created on the initiative of the lawyer Kaminsky and ethnographer John Karlovich. Initially, the museum was located at the zoo, and later was moved to the Museum of Industry and Agriculture. Many exhibits were donated to the museum from private collections of ethnographers: Leopold Janikowski, John Kubarego, Bronislav Pilsudski and many other specialists. In particular, the unique collection of objects from Indochina, Japan and the Middle East, donated by the collector Ignatiy Belakovich, deserves special attention.
In 1921, an expert and connoisseur of European ethnography Yevgeny Frankovsky was appointed the head of the museum, who made an invaluable contribution to the development of the museum. From this period, the museum began to take an active part in European exhibitions and research. The collection increased from 8,954 pieces in 1922 to 30,000 in 1939. The permanent exhibition was divided into three main sections: Polish ethnography, a collection of Slavic ethnography, and a collection of other countries. In the pre-war years, the museum's library was one of the richest in the country, with 26,000 volumes of specialized literature in its collection. Most of the collection was destroyed during a military bombardment.
In 1946, work began on the restoration of the museum, and three years later the first exhibition opened in the 18th century palace, which became a temporary haven for the museum. In December 1973, the inauguration of the museum took place in a new building of the 19th century.
At present, the museum has a film and photo studio, research projects and publications are being carried out, since 1960 the museum has been publishing a scientific journal, and since 2009, the quarterly journal "New Ethnography" has also been published.
