Great Britain

• Polish Library of POSK
• The Pilsudski Institute in London
• Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum
• The Polish Underground Movement Study Trust in London

Polish Library of POSK
236-248 King Street
London W6 0RF, U.K.
GREAT BRITAIN
Fax: + 44 20 8741 77 24
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Creation and short history
The Polish Library in London was founded in 1942 as a result of merger of the book collection of the National Culture Fund at the Ministry of the Interior with the book collection of the Education Office and School Matters operating by the Polish government in London. Its main goal was to collect books for libraries in Poland that were destroyed during the World War II. For over half a century of its existence the Library donated around half a million items of emigration publications to many libraries and private persons in Poland. At present the Library collects all emigration publications, archive materials, documents of social life of Poles living outside Poland. From Polish publications, apart from press, it collects only publications on the humanities.
The Library changed its official name, address and owner several times. In the years 1942-1945 it operated as the Library of the Ministry of Religious Denominations and Public Enlightenment. In the years 1945-1948 it was called: The Polish Library in London. In this period, after Great Britain withdrew its recognition of the Polish government in London, the Library was taken over by the Interim Treasury Committee for Polish Questions at the British Ministry of Treasury, while from 1 April 1947 it was subject to the Committee of Education of Poles in Great Britain. In the years 1948-1953 it was called the Polish University College Library and functioned also as a public Polish Library. In 1953 British authorities decided to close down the Polish University College, and after the intervention from the Polish community in Britain the Polish Library was transferred under the care of the Library Committee at the Polish Research Centre, managed by Prof. Adam Żółtowski. At the same time the Library’s location changed, it moved from Buckingham Palace Mansions at Buckingham Palace Rd., London to a building at 5 Princes Gardens, and in May 1962 – at 9 Princes Gardens. In 1965 the Polish Social and Cultural Association [POSK] was founded and took other the assets of the Polish University College, including the obligation to maintain the Library and its offices. In 1967 POSK became the legal owner of the Polish Library. Since 1977 it is located in the POSK building at 238-246 King Street, London W6.

The book collection has been created and keeps expanding thanks to donations from private persons, institutions, social organisations and emigration publishing houses. In 2000 it consisted of: monographs, copied materials, photographs, atlases and maps, exlibrises, notes and songbooks, covers of emigration publications and periodicals published outside of Poland.
All acquisitions are recorded in inventory books apart from monographs which from 1993 are recorded only in a computer database. The Library has catalogues of monographs arranged by authors, copied materials and archival units, a catalogue of press titles and a computer catalogue with over 60 thousand items, it is systematically expanded with new positions and catalogue items retrospectively. Majority of the materials is described.


Description of the archive collection
Archive collection consists of around 170 linear metres and covers mainly the period from 1939 to 2000. Its main part constitute manuscripts and typescripts of 1357 items in the inventory.

File docuemntation
It is composed of two main groups of files:

1. Legacies of private persons, such as: Stanisław Baliński, Zofia Bohdanowiczowa, Celina Busza-Tarnawska, Ferdynand Goetel, Wacław Grubiński, Bronisław Hełczyński, Czesław Jeśman, Jan Lechoń, Roman Lewicki, Mieczysław Lurczyński, Mieczysław Kratochwil, Herminia Naglerowa, Zygmunt Nowakowski, Sergiusz Piasecki, Józef Retinger, Stanisław Sobotkiewicz, Zbigniew Stypułkowski, Bolesław Szcześniak, Kazimierz Wierzyński and Stefania Zahorska. 
    
2. Files of institutions, organisations and associations, for example: Krzemieniec Archive, Federation of Polish Medical Organisations (1994-1996), “Reduta” Institute (1946-1958), Independent Social Movement, Polish Solidarity Campaign, Polonia Wolnego Świata (1975-1989), Polish Liberation Movement “Niepodległość i Demokracja”, Intra-organisation Council of Leicester (1965-1990), National Council of Poland, Council of Veteran Organisations of Polish Armed Forces (1970-1992), editorial team of “Biuletyn Zachodnio-Słowiański” (1940-1944), Polish Catholic University Association “Veritas”, Polish Merchant Navy (1939-1945), Polish Socialist Party, editorial team of “Na Tropie”, editorial team of “Polska Walcząca”, editorial team of “Orzeł Biały”, editorial team of “Wiadomości Polskie” (correspondence 1940-1942), Association of Polish Electricians in Great Britain (1941-1986), Association of Polish Visual Artists in Great Britain (1989-1991), Peasant Party “Wolność” (1944-1970), Association of Polish Journalists (1970-1992), Association of Polish Socialists in London (1950-1973).
    

   Other materials

• photos arranged by subject (in total around 45.5 thousand). They refer to: economic life of Poland (1918-1939), cultural, social and political life of immigration (1940-2000), political and social activists in exile, politicians, writers, actors, Polish Government in Exile (1939-1990), Polish education abroad (1943-2000), Polish Armed Forces in the West, Polish Army in the USSR, Polish towns (1918-1939);
• posters and leaflets – Solidarity, documents of social life of the immigrants in Great Britain;
• maps and atlases (around 1200) – for example a set of staff maps from before 1939;
• records (105 pieces) – recordings of immigration artists, video tapes on situation in Poland from the years 1970-1990, tapes on the Polish Social and Cultural Association, audio tapes with recordings from Poland from the years 1970-1990;
  - postcards – from the pre-war and WWII period, including postcards from Poland;
• iconographic collection – a collection of pictures, the so-called Motz collection (Feliks Bagieński, Stanisław Bagieński, Janina Bagieńska, etc.), etchings by Jan Lewicki, Konstanty Brandel, graphics, self-lithograph of Feliks Jabczyński;
  - philatelic collection – not described collection of various stamps.

      Press
The collection of periodicals contains over four thousand Polish and foreign titles, including around 500 published in Poland before 1939, 35 titles published in Poland during WWII, around 3300 published in the years 1945-2000. From this last group, around 700 titles appeared in Poland, and around 2600 abroad.

Among the completely preserved there are: “Dziennik Polski”, “Dziennik Żołnierza” (1940-2000), “Wiadomości”, “Orzeł Biały”, “Kultura” (Paris), “Zeszyty Historyczne” (Paris), “Lwów i Wilno” (London), “Dziennik Związkowy” (Chicago), “Gazeta Niedzielna”, “Teki Historyczne”, “Życie”. In the press section there are also bulletins of veterans’ organisations, public organisations and parishes from Great Britain.


    Book collection
The collection is of a humanistic profile. In 2000 it consisted in total of 140 thousand of monographs and brochures. The Library collects all publications published outside Poland related to Polish matters or somehow related to Poland through the author, translator, publisher or illustrator. The most valuable is the collection of the so-called “Conradians” consisting of works by J. Conrad (Józef Korzeniowski) – originals, translations, studies, biographies. Also the collection of old prints is of a great value.


Collaboration with the Head Office of State Archives
The collaboration on description of the Library’s archive materials started in 2007 thanks to the resources granted by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. The delegated archivist described the collection of photos consisting of almost 16 thousand photos from the period of WWII. In order to protect this collection 300 acid free boxes and 10 thousand folders for photos were purchased and delivered to the Library. Organisational and inventorying works in the collection of photos from the legacy of Zdzisław Jagodziński and related to the Library’s activity were continued in 2008 by another archivist. As a result of her visit over five thousand units of photographic documentation from the years 1928-1980 were catalogued.


Plan for future works
Completion of organisational and inventorying works in the collection of photos (around 2500 photos) from the years 1981-2001. Then other materials from paper documentation will be described, including legacies of Polish community activists and papers of Polish organisations. One of the most valuable and the largest unit in this group is the Archive of Polish Unification. The Library’s authorities are also planning to digitalise the archive materials in near the future.

The Pilsudski Institute in London
238-240 King Street
London W6 0RF
GREAT BRITAIN
Phone/Fax: + 44 20 8748 6197
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Creation and short history
The Institute was founded in March 1947. Its tasks, similarly to the Pilsudski Institute of America, were focused on the continuation of activity of the pre-war Institute for Research in the Modern History of Poland that operated in Warsaw. The Institute collects, keeps and Modern history of Poland operating in Warsaw. The Institute collects and describes archive documents and museum and library collections related to the most important events in the modern history of Poland. Based on the gathered historical materials its task is to prepare publications, organise lectures, as well as maintain constant collaboration with similar institutions.
Since 1972 the Institute is located in the building of the Polish Social and Political Centre together with the Polish Library in London.


Description of the collection
Current archival collection of the Institute consist of over 200 archival units and collections, including press, photographs and a cartographic collection. The archive documents constitute the main source for research on first years of Polish independence, including the Polish-Soviet War in 1920. Many materials document contacts between Poland and other countries, including Czechoslovakia, Russia, Ukraine and Hungary. The most valuable for historical research are the documents gathered in the Archive of the Adjutancy General of the Commander in Chief from the years 1918-1922, the so-called Belveder Archive whose second part is kept at the Pilsudski Institute of America. A lot of information important for the historians can be found in legacies of private persons whose content pertains mainly to well-known figures in the history of pre-war Poland, for example Josef Pilsudski, Wacław Jędrzejewicz, Bolesław Wieniawa-Długoszowski, Mieczysław Boruta-Spiechowicz, Edward Rydz-Śmigły and others.

Part of the archive materials covers the period of the September 1939 campaign, materials pertaining to the Polish Armed Forces in the West, Warsaw Uprising in 1944, and political activity of Polish political emigration after the World War II.
The Institute’s collection includes also over 4500 photos and albums related to the life and activity of Josef Pilsudski, as well as over 3500 items creating the so-called press archive, composed of press cuttings and leaflets related to various issues of Polish modern history, including current matters.

Of a significant scientific value is a collection of maps of Poland before World War II and from later period worth noticing are the maps of the battle of Monte Cassino.


Collaboration with the Head Office of State Archives
In September 2007 Dr Sławomir Radoń, the General Director of State Archives, visited the Institute. During the visit both parties expressed the will to establish closer contacts. The collaboration on organisation of archive collection started in 2008. The archivist delegated to the Institute prepared comprehensive records of the archive collection with the use of the SEZAM database. By the Institute’s consent it was added to the all-Poland SEZAM database and is available on-line at the site: www.archiwa.gov.pl. A list of archival units prepared in this way consists of 186 items and will be supplemented with the materials acquired by the Institute. The Institute’s staff was trained by the delegated archivist in the use of the SEZAM database. In 2009 another archivist was sent for a month-long visit to the Institute, he was responsible for description of file units in the IZA database.


Plan for future works
In the future a systematic supplementation of information in the SEZAM database is planned. Archivists delegated from Poland will continue the process of describing individual archive collections that will be added to the all-Poland database of inventories of Polish state archives and made available on-line. In the first place worth describing in detail are the collection of files pertaining to the Institute’s patron, Marshall Josef Pilsudski, collections related to outstanding figures of pre-war Polish diplomacy (for example Józef Beck, Wiktor Drymmer), as well as file units containing valuable information on Polish intelligence from before and during the World War II, including materials on persons trying to work out the German encoding machine “Enigma”.

Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum
20 Princes Gate
London SW7 1PT
Great Britain
www.pism.co.uk
Phone +44 20 7589 9249



Creation and short history
In May 1945 in London the Sikorski Historical Institute was founded, its task was to secure the archives and museum collection left after the activity of Polish state authorities, both civil and military, in exile. The base for the collection became mementoes of general Władysław Sikorski, Prime Minister and Chief in Command in the years 1939-1945. Their donation to the Institute was governed by the decree of the President of Poland dated 27 June 1945. In subsequent years the Institute was given more files, both of offices and private persons, as well as various types of organisations.

The Institute’s organisational structure changed a few times. In 1964 the Sikorski Historical Institute was merged with the Polish Scientific Centre operating after 1939 and as a result an institution under the common name of Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum was created. In 1973 the Institute was joined with the Polish Historical Institute and in 1988 with the Polish Underground Movement Study Trust which kept its internal autonomy.


Description of the collection:
Thanks to the rich archive collection composed of files pertaining to the Polish Armed Forces in the West and files of chief civil authorities in exile, as well as many legacies of private persons, the Institute for many years has been one of the main centres for research in modern Polish history. Its role was especially important in the post-war years when in Poland, due to the political situation and censorship, research on many matters significant for the history of Poland was impossible.

Among the most valuable Institute’s archive materials are the files of the Office of the President of the Republic of Poland, Presidium of the Council of Ministers, ministries, embassies, diplomatic missions and other state offices operating in exile since 1939. Equally important from the research perspective are the military documents from the Staff of the Commander in Chief and the Ministry of Military Matters. In this group of documents there are materials related to the September 1939 campaign, files on battles of Tobruk, Monte Cassino, Ancona, Falaise, Arnhem and Bologna, files of the Polish Navy and Polish Air Force, including documents of the 303 Polish Fighter Squadron and 305 Polish Bomber Squadron.

In the section of legacies of private persons there are materials of general Władysław Sikorski, general Władysław Anders, President of Poland Edward Raczyński and many other distinguished politicians and military men. Other materials of the Museum consist of photographic archive, collection of posters and leaflets, a cartographic collection, audiovisual materials, iconographic, philatelic and numismatic materials.

The archive and museum materials are supplemented with a book collection consisting of over 20 thousand volumes thematically related to the gathered documents. In addition it contains also a collection of old prints, including ones published in 16th century. Among rare items in the book collection there is the first edition of sonnets by Adam Mickiewicz with the author’s autograph.


Collaboration with the Head Office of State Archives
The Institute as a post offering many documents which are priceless for the modern history of Poland recently participated in archival queries for the undertakings realised at the Head Office of State Archives, such as search for the documentation pertaining to the collaboration of Polish and British intelligence or preparation of other source publications.
Rules of closer archive collaboration between the two institutions were established during the visit to London of the General Director of State Archives, Dr Sławomir Radoń, in September 2007. In October 2009 an archivist was sent for a two-month stay at the Institute, he described archival units selected in agreement with the Institute’s authorities.


Plan for future works
Continuation of description of the collection at the level of archival units. Its detailed scope will be established through further working contacts.

The Polish Underground Movement Study Trust in London
11, Leopold Road
London W5 3PB, U.K.
GREAT BRITAIN
Fax: + 44 20 8992 6057
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Creation and short history
The Polish Underground Movement Study Trust [PUMST] was founded in 1947 on the initiative of general Tadeusz Bor-Komorowski in order to secure the files of the Polish Government and Staff of the Commander in Chief created in the period of the Polish Underground State in the years 1939-1945, as well as to collect historical documents created in subsequent years. The founding members of the Study were 14 Home Army soldiers and activist of the Polish Underground State who created the first Council of PUMST.

A special role in the management of works of the Study played Halina Czarnocka, who managed the archive for 37 years till 1988. In 1948 for a permanent seat of the Study the building at 11 Leopold Road was purchased. The resources for the purchase were obtained thanks to a donation from the Polish Government in Exile and a bank loan taken out for the period of 20 years. On account of financial difficulties in subsequent years PUMST commenced talks regarding merger with the Sikorski Institute. After long negotiations on 28 March 1988 an agreement on the merger of the two institutions was concluded, under this agreement PUMST maintained its autonomy.


Description of the collection
The PUMST archive collection comes mainly from the years 1939-1947. Legacies of private persons chronologically reach the 90s of the 20th century.

The PUMST archive is composed of the following sections:

• Documents of the 6th Bureau of the Polish Commander in Chief
• Documents of the Home Department of the Ministry of the Interior
• Documents of the Home Army’s Verification Commission
• personal files
• private collections and legacies
• accounts of the Home Army soldiers
• studies

The main part of the PUMST archive collection constitute the Documents of the 6th Bureau of the Polish Commander in Chief which include encoded correspondence, reports, dispatches, periodic reports of the Home Army Headquarters, files of signal bases, materials on air transportation, radio and courier communication, intelligence, counter-intelligence, conspiracy activity in POW camps, German and Soviet occupations, operation “Burza”, Warsaw Uprising, sabotage and diversion, training of parachutists, files of the Branch Office and National Council of Ministers.

The second important part of the archive constitute the documents of the Home Department of the Ministry of the Interior including reports, registers and telegram correspondence.

Among the legacies worth noticing are documents of Gen. T. Bor-Komorowski, Col. F. Demel , St. Dołęga-Modrzewski, Lt. Col. Giedronowicz, colonel Iranek-Osmecki, Lt. Col. engineer K. Kraczkiewicz, Stanisław Mackiewicz, Gen. T. Pełczyński. In the thematic collections as separate units were gathered documents related to: Cichociemni [The Dark and Silent], Women Soldiers of the Home Army (PWSK), Home Army’s Verification Commission in Germany, “Wolność i Niezawisłość”. Also large is the section of accounts of the members of underground activity consisting of 820 items. These files were divided according to geographical regions and then according to the subject.

These materials are supplemented by a collection of photographs composed of around three thousand photos. In terms of their topics, the photos concern the period of German occupation and everyday life in occupied Poland, Warsaw Uprising, partisan troops, persecution of Jews in the period of WWII, Poles in the USSR, Polish Armed Forces in the West, commanders of Home Army. There is also a small collection of aerial photos of Poland, including Warsaw from the period from April to 18 September 1944.

A significant source for research in modern history may also be the posters, underground leaflets, collection of maps and plans of the 6th Bureau of the Commander in Chief, collection of underground press and audiovisual documentation, including a film from the Warsaw Uprising, as well as 70 videotapes on the Home Army, German occupation of Poland and persecution of Jews.

The book collection gathered at PUMST consists of around 6 thousand items in total. It constitutes a reference library of PUMST with profile closely related to the Polish Underground State and its military branch – the Home Army. It is composed of publications published abroad as well as in Poland. Among the most valuable publications there is published in exile during the War by the Ministry of Information and Documentation “The German New Order in Poland” (London 1942).
In addition PUMST has collected over 700 museum items, including mementoes and medals. There are for example, hiding places, dispatches, orders, badges, stamps, bands, kites, parts of uniforms and a radio. The PUMST collection, like the collection of the Polish Museum and Sikorski Institute and the Pilsudski Institute in London arise interest, in the first place, among the historians of modern history of Poland and constitute invaluable supplement to the archive materials in Poland.


Collaboration with the Head Office of State Archives
Systematic archive collaboration has been developed since 2007. In September 2007, the General Director of State Archives visited PUMST, and familiarised himself in detail with the methods of work and needs of the Study in the scope of professional help from Polish archivists.

In the years 2007-2008 the Head Office of State Archives delegated four archivists and an IT specialist to PUMST. During archival works conducted in this period the large photographic collection of PUMST was described, as well as the archival unit of Home Army Soldiers Global Society. The delegated archivists participated also in preparation of archive exhibitions (for example, Women in battle for independence 1939-1945), conduction of preliminary archival research and project of digitalisation of the documents of the 6th Bureau of the Commander in Chief. The delegated IT specialist helped in installation of the new computer cable network, and conducted training for the employees of PUMST on data protection and safety on the Internet.

In the years 2007-2008 two thousand acid free folders were purchased for PUMST as well as envelopes to secure photos and underground press collection from the period of World War II.


Plan for future works
In September 2009 another archivist was delegated to perform archival works, he continued description of collections. In the future continuation of description of the collection at the level of archival units is planned.
 

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