Popular Customs: The History of Krakow

The most important ethnological museum in Poland

The Ethnographic Museum of Krakow opened its doors for the first time on February 19, 1911, thanks to the efforts of Seweryn Udziela. The Polish educator was a community volunteer, a member of the Polish Academy of Anthropology, Physiography, and Ethnography, and the author of numerous ethnographic works.

Before the official founding of the museum, he defined its mission as follows: “Ethnographic museums help us understand which peoples inhabit the Earth, how they live, how they dress, what concerns them, and what their customs and traditions are.”

The Ethnographic Museum of Krakow is a member of the FIHRM network, faithful to its motto: every museum has the potential to be a human rights museum.

Concept and definition of Ethnological Museum

An ethnological museum is an institution where ethnological heritage is preserved, represented, and managed. That is why, from the space, they explain: “Here, some visitors will satisfy their curiosity, others will learn, and others will devote themselves to studying the history and current state of national cultures.”

The history of Polish customs

The Museum of Ethnography Society was founded at the beginning of the 20th century. The first exhibition was inaugurated in three rooms overlooking the inner courtyard. In 1913, the collections were moved to a building that housed the former St. Michael’s Seminary in Wawel. From then on, new exhibition rooms were added every year.

Taking advantage of the festive atmosphere of the preparations for patriotic commemorations in Krakow and appealing to the community to donate, the Museum announced that it was collecting objects related to the life and art of rural populations of Poland and neighboring lands, as well as collections from more distant countries, “as long as they were donated by Polish travelers or collectors.”
It was a golden age for collectors. Many decided to donate their private collections. The museum came to have 30,000 objects that survived World War II.

Boom of popular culture

The 1950s were marked by the strengthening of the ideology of the new state: the People’s Republic of Poland. Popular culture had a very particular importance for the new government. The new exhibitions responded to the urgent social need to change the narrative about peasant culture and history, a resolute denunciation of humiliation and exploitation, of the stigma of centuries-long serfdom.

The 1960s and 1970s were marked by international biennials of graphic design, in addition to round tables with experts.

At the beginning of the 1980s, Poland lived under martial law, repression by the regime, and the struggle against product shortages and a bleak reality. There, the famous exhibition “The Black Madonna of Częstochowa in Polish Folk Art” was inaugurated, which became a social event.

The museum’s open doors today

Since its founding, the museum has expanded its collection with more than 80,000 objects, which are exhibited in the permanent exhibition and in numerous temporary exhibitions. The museum carries out research, publications, and educational activities. In recent years, it has intensified its field research on contemporary phenomena (urban garden owners as urban gardeners, family photography, contemporary weddings, new dimensions of craftsmanship), as well as on the importance of historical collections (wood engravings, the Siberian collection, the typical costumes of Krakow).

From the space, they promote the idea of the “Krakow Workshops,” initiated at the beginning of the 20th century. The initiative encourages the creation of everyday objects inspired by traditional culture, known as ethnodesign.

Reinvention: reforms of the new space

In recent decades, the museum has been promoting new forms of communication with the public by exploring relevant contemporary themes. All these activities, created under the motto “My museum, a museum about me,” aim to bring the essence of ethnography and its benefits closer to contemporary visitors. Likewise, they foster personal dialogue with the values offered by tradition and careful observation of the world around us.

In 2017, the museum began a new stage by acquiring one of the historic buildings of the former manor on Babiński Street 29, in Krakow. The building is located within the park next to the Dr. J. Babiński Hospital in Krakow-Kobierzyn. The aim of the acquisition is its renovation and adaptation to new functions, especially the creation of the Storage-Studio, which will allow access to the collection in innovative ways.

The building plans to exhibit part of the collection that is currently not in the museum, and to add the town hall, which will be adapted to contemporary reception and exhibition standards.

Guillermo Whpei