Archive

Who can access them?

The MEK archives are available to anyone interested, including those who are curious about the archives for personal reasons.

Using the collections (preliminary research):

Please indicate the topics/time period which interests you, either by mail, telephone, e-mail, or in-person. We will work with you to find a convenient time, a way to address your interests and which kind of access to the archives will serve best (either in electronic form or on-site in the museum, depending on availability).

Availability of the collections for preliminary research:

After you choose which collections you are interested in, please submit your request (either online or on-site utilising the appropriate form). A request should include:

• The catalogue number(s) of the archive
• A brief description of the topic/time period
• A brief summation of why you wish to access the material
• The first and last name of the person making the request (this also could include the institution which the person represents)
• The date of the request

The MEK's archives are available only on the spot in the reading room, in the museum building at Plac Wolnica 1. A valid identity document must be presented to use the collections. On-site queries of the collections in the reading room are free of charge. Queries on request, the making available of digital images outside the reading room, and the commissioning of reproductions are subject to the rules and fees contained in the Regulations for providing access to collections, images of collections and information on collections of the Seweryn Udziela Ethnographic
Museum of Kraków for purposes other than museum tours.

•  Regulations for providing access to collections, images of collections and information on collections of the Seweryn Udziela Ethnographic Museum of Kraków for purposes other than museum tours
•  APPLICATION FOR ACCESS TO DIGITAL IMAGES OF MUSEUM OBJECTS/ARCHIVE RECORDS FROM THE COLLECTIONS OF THE SEWERYN UDZIELA ETNOGRAPHIC MUSEUM OF KRAKÓW

• hand-written and typed manuscripts
• watercolours, drawings, graphics
• photographs, postcards, prints
• glass slides, celluloid slides, films
• glass plates, celluloid negatives
• vinyl records, audio tapes, CDs, DVDs
• posters, placards
• brochures, booklets, flyers
• newspaper clippings
• maps

Currently, the collection of the The Department of Documenting Cultural Contexts includes about 250,000 items. The most numerous group is the photographs (over 80,000), drawings (over 13,000), and texts (close to 5,000).

Apart from the photographs from the 1930s depicting, for example, young boys praying at the REMU Cemetery in Kazimierz in Kraków, wooden churches from Lower Silesia, Spanish landscapes from the 1950s, and scenes from the everyday life of Indian tribes from South America between the 1950s and 1970s, we can find, above all, portraits of tens of thousands of people looking seriously into the camera. These photographs have an important documentary value – we not only see people of diverse races, classes and ages, but also their surroundings (a flat, courtyard, town or village landscape). In the background we often observe other, no less important, characters – running children, workers focused on their work, bored merchants at the market, a startled animal. These pictures, taken during rituals, games and celebrations, are both informative and emotionally charged.

The Museum’s watercolours and drawings demonstrate quite tangibly the texture and colours of clothes, details of architectural styles, and the variety of craftsmanship. Here we can find samples of patterns for coloured eggs, children’s painting books, ceramics, ritual art, embroidery, examples of furniture ornamentation and everyday objects. There are even drawings of criminals tried in Nowy Sącz 140 years ago.  

What is remarkable about the Museum’s collection is its variety of texts which describe the cultures of Poland, Europe and countries outside Europe – hand-copied prayer books, diaries, peasants’ last wills, ethnographic description of towns, notes about oral and musical folklore, materials from field research, including recent research.

The archive is supplemented by a second collection acquired in 1997 from the former Workshop for Folk Art Research in the Institute of Art of Polish Academy of Sciences. The Workshop was founded by Roman Reinfuss, who – together with his colleagues and students – intensively carried out field research, investigating declining folk culture in all its forms and manifestations. All materials are collected in 823 files and they include descriptions, interviews, drawings, and colourful boards. About 70,000 photographs supplement the collection.