Travel Love Poland Magazine – March 2021

Currently, the collection of the Museum of the City of Łódź includes over 62 thousand
exhibits and the number is growing successively. The collected objects, inscribed in the
museum inventory, are classified in a number of categories: iconographic, numismatic,
ethnographic, and archeologic collections as well as collections of art industry, painting,
sculpture, architecture and urban planning, music, literature, and separate collections
related to the history of the City, both the oldest as well as the current one. The Museum
of Sports and Tourism – Branch of the Museum of the City of Łódź has been gathering a
rich collection connected to the history of sport in Łódź.
In case of the Museum of the City of Łódź, an important criterion that influences the
acceptance of objects to the museum collection is the relation of a given object to our City,
its history, people who lived in Łódź, both the ‘ordinary’ citizens of Łódź, who did not stand
out among thousands of other citizens with their everyday life and work, as well as the
distinguished ones, who contributed to rendering Łódź famous, also on the international
arena, with their life, work and creative output. A very important part of the Museum’s
collection is formed by works and mementos of creators that either came from Łódź or
were active here, both those that lived in late 19th century and the contemporary ones.
Photo: Mariusz Cieszewski / www.polska.pl
In the Museum’s repertory there are also furniture sets, lamps and chandeliers, objects that
constituted elements of interior furnishings, including numerous charming products of the
art industry. The Museum owns interesting collections of paintings, posters and engravings
as well as sculptures. The Museum’s inventory includes multiple photographs that present
Łódź: the city’s architecture and its citizens, important events: cultural, social and political
ones. The Museum owns an interesting collection of 19th-century portrait photographs,
numerous tableaux, a collection of postcards and advertising vignettes. The historical
collection that documents the history of Łódź is very extensive and it includes documents,
ephemera, correspondence, posters, bills of exchange and old coins, numerous decorations
and medals. An important place in the collection of the Museum of the City of Łódź,
depicting the life of the citizens of old, is taken also by objects connected with the religious
life. Łódź at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries was a multicultural and
multidenominational city and that is why in the repertory of the Museum there are Judaica
as well as objects connected with the catholic, evangelical and Orthodox traditions. The
Museum of the City of Łódź has its seat in the most stately palace among all the palaces
that formerly belonged to the factory owners of Łódź: the Palace of Izrael Poznański. This
representative dwelling, which was extended in several stages, is one of the most precious
monuments of the historical heritage of Łódź; together with the surrounding factory and
housing compound it is an example of the industrial Łódź of late 19th and early 20th
century. Over the years, the Museum has put a lot of effort into restoring the former
glamour and splendour to the Palace and its interiors.
The carefully renovated palace interiors, equipped with
furniture, works of art and objects of everyday use
from the Museum’s collection, constitute a testimony
of the times of glory of the industrial empire of the
Poznański Family and bring us closer to the times and
way of life of typical Lodzermenschen. In the vast
spaces of the palace, exhibitions that form part of the
Pantheon of Great Citizens of Łódź were also
arranged. Among them there are studies of: Marek
Edelman, Alexandre Tansman, Julian Tuwim, Jan Karski
and Karl Dedecius. In the Museum there functions
Arthur Rubinstein’s Music Gallery, which is an
exposition where important and interesting objects
connected with Arthur Rubinstein, donated to the
Museum after the outstanding pianist’s death, were
made available to the public. In the studies of the
Great Citizens of Łódź we present objects of everyday
use, but also the ones related to the work they
performed, which formerly belonged to famous
citizens of Łódź, as well as numerous awards and
valuable decorations. In the collection of the Museum
of the City of Łódź connected with the Great Citizens
of Łódź there are, among other things, interesting
iconographic objects, posters, very first editions of
famous works, and letters. It is in the Museum of the
City of Łódź, in the Pantheon of Great Citizens of
Łódź, where you can admire, among other things, the
only Oscar statue in Łódź, which was awarded to
Arthur Rubinstein by the American Motion Picture
Academy, Julian Tuwim’s pen or the desk at which Karl
Dedecius worked.The Museum of Sports and Tourism,
Branch of the Museum of the City of Łódź, owns rich
collections as well, which comprise over 26 thousand
objects: awards and statues, old coins, archival
materials, iconographies and sports equipment
connected with the sport of Łódź, especially with
sportspeople who over the years have put a lot of
effort into its development. The collection includes
valuable relics of Maria Kwaśniewska, a citizen of Łódź
and the bronze medallist in javelin throw from the
Olympics in Berlin in 1936, mostly connected with Łódź
Sports Club, or of Jadwiga Wajs, an athlete born in
Pabianice near Łódź, the winner of the bronze medal in
discus throw from the Olympics in Los Angeles in 1932
and the silver medal from the Olympics in Berlin in
1936. For many years, the sport of Łódź has been also
associated with excellent track cyclists, including the
multigenerational Bek family, who for almost half a
century created the tradition of track cycling in the
city of textile workers. The Museum of Sports owns a
collection of awards and diplomas as well as a precious
bike intended precisely for the aforementioned
discipline of sport.
The Poznański Family Palace is a priceless monument
and an important spot on the cultural map of the city,
in which a rich programme of diverse educational and
artistic events is implemented. The Museum also
invites you to visit cyclically organised temporary
exhibitions.
105 TRAVEL.LOVEPOLAND