History of Technical Museology on Polish Lands

The exhibition presents 250 years of the history of Polish technical museology, showing its development against a European background and the many years of effort to create a museum documenting national scientific and engineering achievements. An integral part of the exhibition is the Retroplanetarium, which enables astronomical shows using a historical projector.

The exhibition presents the history of Polish technical museology and the many years of effort to create a museum befitting the stature of national scientific and engineering achievements.

The exhibition's narrative focuses above all on Warsaw, where, as through a lens, the successes, ambitions and difficulties accompanying the development of technology museums converge. This history is set against a European context, revealing a marked disparity between the scale of Polish achievements and the degree of their museum presentation. The display also illustrates changes in the perception of the role of technical museology, from collecting objects to their educational and social function.

The exhibition is built on a chronological-thematic structure. On the one hand, it leads visitors through key events, places and figures linked to the development of technical museology; on the other, it points to the most important systemic problems this field has faced for decades.

The exhibition is divided into eleven sections, covering, among other things, the beginnings of technical museology on Polish lands, the museum as a material archive of technical change, the activity of prewar institutions, the dramatic interruption of development during World War II, postwar transformations, the protection of industrial heritage, and reflection on the future of technology museums.

The exhibition features nearly 350 carefully selected exhibits from the collection of the National Museum of Technology. Many of them are being shown publicly for the first time. Among the objects presented are items associated with the prewar Muzeum Komunikacji, a fragment of the Kogutek II aircraft of engineer Władysław Zalewski (one of the few surviving prewar aircraft designs), as well as a rich collection of models and NMT deposits previously dispersed across museums throughout the country.

Thanks to cooperation with the Muzeum Narodowe w Szczecinie, it was also possible to recreate the former Maritime Museum of Count Stanisław Ledóchowski, by presenting original models from the collection of the first maritime museum in Poland, which operated until the outbreak of World War II.

An integral part of the exhibition is the Retroplanetarium, located in the same space, which enables astronomical shows using a historical projector that displays celestial bodies on the dome. The planetarium is also equipped with modern projectors, which will be used for contemporary educational presentations.

The exhibition is aimed at a broad audience, regardless of age or level of knowledge. For older visitors it offers an opportunity to confront memories of past displays; for younger ones, a chance to discover technical museology in a form they have not encountered before. The exhibition also encourages reflection on the directions of development of this branch of museology in Poland.

This is the first such comprehensive attempt to present the history of Polish technical museology, a history inseparably linked with the history of Polish statehood. The wealth of objects and the scenographic character of the exhibition give it a distinctly emotional dimension, allowing visitors to experience problems that, despite the passage of time, in many respects remain unchanged.

Exhibition partners: Muzeum Narodowe w Szczecinie, Muzeum i Instytut Zoologii Polskiej Akademii Nauk, Instytut Historii Nauki Polskiej Akademii Nauk