I was thinking how wonderful for so many young Americans to show interest in Kosciuszko. When I finished eating I went to listen to their conversations, but a bus arrived and they all jumped in. As it drove away I noticed it was some sort of Polish tourist bus!

The interview with Halina also reminded me of my interesting experience with John Rumm of the Philadelphia Civil War Museum. He had recently been appointed Director and related to me what he had discovered rummaging through the museum's musty dusty cellar. Just like Halina he uncovered packages that had lain about forgotten for decades. Turned out they were letters of a recent Yankee recruit, Edwin Little.

PMA Archivist, Halina Misterka. Photo Puls Polonii

In writing to his wife a fascinating picture emerges about the thoughts, fears, motives, hopes and changing attitudes as he finishes military training and is mobilised. On his second day with his unit he is killed at Gettysburg. Amazingly, close by, Rumm found another such package and in it he discovered the letters Little's wife had written in reply. She writes of how she is coping alone on the farm, about the little anecdotes of their son; of her love and loneliness. Incredibly, she gave birth to their second child on November 19th 1863, at the very time Abraham Lincoln was giving a speach at the Soldiers Cemetery in Gettysburg.

This 2 minute speach was only to be a minor part of the celebrations, Lincoln had been invited more or less as a polite afterthought, with Edward Everett to be the main speaker. Everett spoke for 2 hours but his words have been forgotten whereas Lincoln's Gettysburg address is known as one of the world's greatest speaches. Like Halina said, you can never know the importance of material being donated at the time it is donated.

Who knows how much stuff is lying around in archives in museums around the world.

Regards
Felix Molski

Kosciuszko's Monument, Lafayette Park. Photo F. Molski

Another angle of the monument. Photo Felix Molski