Kobiety jako dawczynie Towarzystwa Naukowego Krakowskiego w latach 1857–1871

Created in 1815, the Cracow Learned Society from the beginning of its existence has been the addressee of many donations from the public as one of the few Polish scientific institutions under the partitions. The donations had a financial as well as material nature, such as scientific works, early prints, atlases and maps, manuscripts, parchment diplomas, engravings, paintings, sculptures, interesting daily use objects, but also coins and medals, archaeological exhibits, natural findings, ethnographic objects and patriotic memorabilia. Between 1858 and 1871, before the Society transformed into the Academy of Arts and Sciences, an institution with a higher status, accurate records of donations were kept. Thanks to that, it was possible to distinguish from the donors a group of 66 donations given by 57 women, wherein the donation could contain several dozen or even several hundred objects. The donations were of a very diverse nature. The text currently presented is an attempt at identifying all the female donors of museum and library objects (since the records in the Society’s sources are at times limited to only the last name) and characterizing this specific group of women. They came from different environments, from aristocrats to humble townswomen, they were Polish, but also Jewish and probably German. They had different social and financial status, yet they all had in common the fact that they were ahead of their time, donating to the Society objects worthy of attention, with the thought of scientific or museum aims or simply preserving national memorabilia. In only some of the cases their actions were an implementation of the testamentary will of their loved ones, e.g. of a deceased husband or brother; however, most of them seem to be initiated by the women themselves. The case of the women’s monetary contributions for the needs of the Cracow Learned Society was also indicated.