Thaddeus Kościuszko
In 2017 we celebrate 200th anniversary of the death of Polish and American hero and general Thaddeus Kościuszko. On this occasion the Polish Parliament set 2017 the year of Kościuszko, and its celebrations, which were initiated by the Kościuszko’s Knoll Committee in Cracow, will take place under the auspices of UNESCO and the President of Poland. The official inauguration of the ceremony will take place at March, 24th, the anniversary of the Kościuszko Uprising. Events connected with the anniversary of Kościuszko’s death will endure practically whole year – there will be variuos movies projections, historic stagings, exhibitions, contests, issue of the commemorative coin by the National Bank of Poland, and also an academic conference. Among stocks of repositories belonging to the Digital Libraries Federation we can find quite a lot of publications which late us remind of general’s accomplishments.
The Digital Library of Wielkopolska is quite richly equipped in this case – we can find many shorter and longer Kościuszko’s biographies there – we have chosen two more interesting ones – first one with illustrations, coloured boards and an autograph of Kościuszko from 1902 r; second one from 1917, written with colorful, emotional language, praising the merits, describing personal and family life of the general. Apart from that, in the same repository there is a 6-volume set of Thaddeus Kościuszko’s proclamations and reports published in 1870 (volume I). The National Digital Library POLONA besides the portraits from the end of 19th century (1, 2) shares among others the play by Bogusława Mańkowska from 1880 – Thaddeus Kościuszko – four whiles from the life of the hero and a poster of a historic exhibition “1746-1817 – Thaddeus Kościuszko” in a National Museum in Cracow. We can find other single interesting objects connected with Kościuszko also in some other digital repositories: Digital Library of Silesia – Circumstantial publication for the youth written by Helena Witkowska for the 100th anniversary of Kościuszko’s death; Kujawsk0-Pomorska Digital Library – portrait aquaforte of Kościuszko from 1948; Digital Library of UMCS – short biography from 1917, according mainly the military accomplishments of the hero; PAUart, the catalogue of artistic and scientific stocks of Polish Academy of Sciences – a beautiful card with dedication on occassion of the nameday, containing a decorative image of Kościuszko from 1892, coming from the Teofil Lenartowicz album; and the National Digital Museum in Warsaw – in this case there are mainly paintings and graphics with portraits and scenes from the life of Kościuszko (for example a miniature gouache “Thaddeus Kościuszko in a dress by Kazimierz Wojniakowski”).
