I AM THEREFORE ASKING YOU TO STOP WORKING ON THE MUSEUM. STANISŁAW SANKOWSKI’S WAY TO ESTABLISHING A MUSEUM IN RADOMSKO

Abstract

In 2020, we are celebrating 50 years of the Stanisław Sankowski Museum in Radomsko, officially established on 1 July 1970. However, it was already from 1946 that Stanisław Sankowski, a history teacher, had been collecting documents and exhibits related to the region among the students of the First Secondary School in Radomsko. He appealed for them to be collected in the school newsletter and in 1958 in the ‘Gazeta Radomszczańska’ paper. The appeal was successful, and the collections started to grow. At that point there was no mention of a seat for the Museum, so initially, as approved by the school Headmaster, the Museum was housed in the school building. It seemed that it would find a home there for longer, particularly as the school was given a new building. When it turned out there was no separate room available for the exhibition, the school hall was adapted for the Museum exhibits. This, however, was not to the liking of the school authorities; the Deputy Headmaster, who, interestingly, happened to be a historian himself, forbid the works to be continued. For some time the Museum’s activity was suspended, yet finally S. Sankowski decided to move the collected exhibits to his own flat. Excursions, even from around the country, were invited to visit it. Meanwhile, S. Sankowski continuously tried to be allocated some facility where the Museum could be housed. The efforts were accelerated by the mention of the Radomsko Museum in a private flat in a programme on Radio Free Europe. Soon afterwards, the home for the Museum was found: initially, they were 3 rooms in the building of the town authorities, later the whole ground floor, while in the mid-1970s it was allocated almost the whole building of the former 1859 Town Hall. The Museum had enjoyed first successes even before the formal establishment; these were undoubtedly the finds that brought archaeologists to Radomsko and their subsequent discoveries. What needs to be appreciated, though, i s f i rst a n d fo rem o st t h e ed u cat i o n a l effo r t o f S. Sankowski and his promoting activities. Many years later, in 2008, the Radomsko Regional Museum was named after its instigator and creator.