Z dziejów Gabinetu Zoologicznego : korespondencja Jana Sztolcmana (1854-1928)

Daszkiewicz, Piotr; Iwan, Dariusz; Kowalski, Hubert; Mierzwa-Szymkowiak, Dominika; Wanat, Marek

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Title: Z dziejów Gabinetu Zoologicznego : korespondencja Jana Sztolcmana (1854-1928)

Abstract:

On 28 April 1928, Jan Sztolcman (born on 19 November 1854) died in Warsaw. InAugust 1875, thanks to a recommendation from Władysław Taczanowski (1819–1890),he started to cooperate with the Zoological Cabinet and went on a journey to Peru andthen to Ecuador. At that time, brothers Aleksander Branicki (1821–1877) and KonstantyBranicki (1824–1884) were patrons supporting the Cabinet. Jan Sztolcman became famousas an excellent ornithologist and hunter during his travels around South America, wherehe would acquire extremely valuable specimens for Polish and European scientific institutions.He himself researched and described unknown species of animals, among others,Loddigesia mirabilis hummingbirds, which live in the valleys of the Andes.In 1887, after returning to Warsaw, he took over the management of the BranickiMuseum. After Poland regained independence, Jan Sztolcman became the deputy directorof the National Museum of Natural History, which was established as a result of the mergerof the Zoological Cabinet of the University of Warsaw and the Branicki Museum based onan agreement concluded between Ksawery Branicki and the government of the Republic ofPoland (ordinance of 24 September 1919). Jan Sztolcman was also the founder and editorof the Łowiec Polski journal (1899) and a nature protection activist – he was a member ofthe State Council for Nature Conservation from 1926. Furthermore, he was the initiatorand one of the most important figures of the bison rescue campaign.The ninetieth anniversary of the death of the famous Polish zoologist and traveller inclinedthe editorial staff of Memorabilia Zoologica to publish a special volume containinghis correspondence with his family and Janusz Domaniewski (1891–1954), as well as lettersto Emil Oustalet (1844–1905). The published letters are kept in the Archives of the Museumand the Institute of Zoology of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw and in thecollections of the Main Library of the National Museum of Natural History in Paris. Thecorrespondence reflects the different stages of Jan Sztolcman’s life. The first two letters tohis sister Julia, one from London and the other one from Paris, were written in the early1880s, after Sztolcman’s return from Peru, while the next 18 letters are connected witha journey he made together with Józef Siemiradzki (1858–1933) to Ecuador. The correspondencewith Emil Oustalet, an ornithologist and professor at the National Museum ofNatural History in Paris, comprising 16 letters written between 1888 and 1899, refers tothe period when Jan Sztolcman was the administrator of the collections held at the BranickiMuseum. The correspondence with Janusz Domaniewski from the years 1922–1928 includesletters written at the end of Sztolcman’s life – the last letter was sent at the beginningof April 1928, a few weeks before his death.In addition, there is a reprint of Janusz Domaniewski’s posthumous memoirs publishedin Wszechświat (1928), as well as a full list of scientific publications and species describedby Jan Sztolcman, published in French in Annales Musei Zoologici Polonici (Domaniewski 1928).