| P.P. In addition to our audio interview, we have some more about the Kosciuszko Statue. The PMA Archives (Polish Museum of America) received a request from an advanced graduate research intern at the National Park Service in Washington, D.C regarding material in our holdings related to the Thaddeus Kosciuszko statue in Lafayette Park, Washington, DC. The project is to survey the history and development of the statue for the National Park Service. This research will be used to produce the Park Service's Park Notes on the statue. PMA Archivist Halina Misterka found in the PMA Archives a unique collection of Protocols (1904 - 1907) of the Executive Committee for the Erection of the Monument honoring Thaddeus Kosciuszko in Washington, DC.
Our interview with Halina Misterka in Polish
F. Molski's comment on our interview with Halina Misterka re: Kosciuszko's Statue in Washington
Research indicates that the Polish National Alliance and other Polish groups were instrumental in bringing about the erection of this statue. On January, 1904, several Polish American leaders signed a letter to President Theodore Roosevelt offering to erect the statue on behalf of the Polish people in America. The federal government officially accepted this gift in April of 1904. However, the "official" records at the National Archives and the Library of Congress really begin in 1906 with the selection of the artist, Antoni Popiel.
The research intern was very interested in all documents regarding this statue, particularly anything from the intervening two years of 1904-1906 including:
- Discussions, letters, or meeting notes regarding the development of the design competition and its guidelines;
- Photographs, blueprints, or sketches from any of the artists who submitted a model for the competition.[] (Apparently 17 artists submitted models but only 3 names exist in the national records);
- Information on the artist Antoni Popiel;
- Documentary evidence as to the motivation of the Polish groups to make this gift to the United States.
Research in the PMA Archive was conducted and the results were better than expected.
Based upon HR #84 in the House of Representatives on January 21, 1904 (from the PMA Archival Coll.) "...the statue of General Thaddeus Kosciuszko to be erected... by and at the expense of the Polish American organizations and of the Polish-American people of the United States generally through Theodore M. Helinski, president of the central Committee of the Polish - American organizations ... the selection of the site on Lafayette square, the approval of the statue offered, and the manner of it's erection shall be under the control of a Commission, consiting of the Secretary of War and the chairman of the Commission of the Committee of the Library of the Senate/House of Representatives of the 58th Congress".
During the time that the Polish American organizations worked, the committee evolved into the Komitet Wykonawczy Budowy Pomnika Tadeusza Kosciuszki, which we have translated as the Executive Committee for the Erection of the Monument of Thaddeus Kosciuszko in Washington, DC with Theodore M. Helinski as president.
The PMA Archive have almost all the protocols from the meetings of this Executive Committee, held in Chicago from 1904-1907. However, the protocols are hand-written in Polish only (organized in 55 folders with English captions), on very fragile paper. The protocols can answer all of the questions asked by the Intern from the National Park Service in Washington, D.C. The protocles gives a wonderful picture of the Committee's activites to collect money and erect the Thaddeus Kosciuszko Monument.
In the Archival collection, there are 15 photographs of models submitted by various artist for the competition. The models were presented at Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., December 1-15, 1906.
If you read Polish and would like to learn more about the Kosciuszko and Pulaski statues in Washington, D.C, the Archivist recommends reading the publication: Pamietnik Wzniesienia i Odsłoniecia Pomnikow Tadeusza Kosciuszki i Kazimierza Pulaskiego Tudziez Polaczonego z Ta Uroczystoscia Pierwszego Kongresu Narodowego Polskiego w Waszyngtonie, D.C. by Romuald Piatkowski, Publisher: PNA, Chicago, Illinois, 1911.
Reprinted from The Polish Museum of America Newsletter,
Vol 10 No 2 Spring 2009. p.17
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