By ZBIGNIEW KANTOROSINSKI
On Aug. 23 a small group of Polish visitors gathered around a display table in the Jefferson Building's Members' Room. They were captivated by old volumes bound in leather that were spread out before them.
One of these guests was Jolanta Kwasniewska, the first lady of Poland. She was inspecting the signatures of schoolchildren from her native district and pointed out that these individuals might now be grandparents.
Meanwhile, Jerzy Kozminski, the Polish ambassador to the United States, was examining drawings in a companion volume. He marveled at a beautifully executed watercolor of a peasant woman from the Hutsul region by artist Wladyslaw Jarocki, a colorist who devoted his talent chiefly to the representation of Polish peasant life and customs. Ambassador Kozminski commented that not even the leading art experts would know of the drawing's existence.
These visitors were examining three volumes from a set of 111 presented to President Calvin Coolidge on Oct. 14, 1926, as a testimonial of the gratitude and friendship of the Polish people for the United States on the 150th anniversary of American independence. This extraordinary collection is composed of sheets bearing an estimated 5.5 million signatures of Polish citizens as well as drawings by Polish artists, decorative bindings, official seals, photographs and calligraphy.
This monumental undertaking was initiated in February 1926 by the American Polish Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Poland and the Polish American Society. These two organizations, founded in 1919 by Ignacy Paderewski, invited various government departments, the municipality of Warsaw and other important institutions and associations to appoint delegates to a national Sesquicentennial Committee of Poland. The inspiration for this unusual gift was the Polish custom, popular among schoolchildren, of presenting a classmate or teacher with an album (Ksiega Pamiatkowa) inscribed by each child with good wishes, drawings, a favorite poem or merely a signature in commemoration of some special occasion.
As organized by Polish American leaders and executed in part by leading Polish artists, this Ksiega Pamiatkowa became a masterly work of art.
Because a presidential library system was not created until after Coolidge's administration, all the volumes were transferred that same year to the Library of Congress, where they were housed in the Manuscript Division and briefly exhibited by presidential order. Sometime later, they were placed in the Library's storage area in Landover, Md., and largely overlooked by all but library staff. They were returned to the Madison Building in August 1996 as part of a continuing arrearage reduction project.
The signatures in these volumes range from those of the president of the republic, the cardinal archbishop of Warsaw and national and regional government officials, to university, elementary and secondary school students. During the eight months it took to complete the project, Marshal Jozef Pilsudski, Polish statesman and hero of the Russo-Polish War of 1920, rode into Warsaw, disbanded the fractious parliament and established a new government. Ignacy Moscicki, the man he put in power, signed as president; Pilsudski, signed as minister of national defense.
Beginning in the last half of Volume II and running through Volume CIX, the signatures of students and faculty from Polish schools appear. The major universities and professional schools, about 1,000 secondary schools and some 20,000 elementary schools are represented. Many of the signatures were collected at celebrations held throughout Poland on July 4, 1926, to mark the anniversary of American independence. The signatures in all volumes taken together represent more than one-sixth of the Polish population in that year.
Volume II is of special interest. It contains the signatures of officials from the 16 Polish provinces that existed at that time as well as the staff of the Polish Commission General in the Free City of Danzig (Gdansk). The cover sheets for each province were designed and executed by leading Polish painters and graphic artists. The volume contains exquisite samples of the work of Ferdynand Ruszczyc, Wladyslaw Skoczylas, Ludomir Slendzinski, Zofia Stryjenska and Leon Wyczolkowski.
Because the 1920s were a major turning point in Polish art, the drawings are of historic interest. The restoration of Polish independence at the end of World War I prompted the country's artists to experiment with different art movements to develop an individual "Polish" style. Many of the designs show a striking and unique combination of symbolism, impressionism or art deco with Polish folk art.
An Oct. 15, 1926, article in The New York Times described the volumes as an "emblem of good will" between Poland and the United States. They were undoubtedly inspired by Poland's admiration for American democratic institutions, which, according to the inscription in Volume I, had become "the guiding stars for all modern democracies." Moreover, America's victory in World War I and its determination to establish an independent Polish state as a condition for peace in Europe allowed Poland, after 123 years of partition, to again take its place among the free nations of the world.
Zbigniew Kantorosinski is an acquisitions librarian in the Order Division.