Of the museums I have visited that have Polish relevance there are three that have egregious omissions. Attached is my latest communication with the chief historical director at the Gettysburg Museum. Dear Mr Hartwig. Thank you for your reply of 20th of May to my enquiry of May 14th re Krzyzanowski’s exclusion from the Gettysburg exhibits. I am writing this detailed follow up because I consider your reply to be inadequate, condescending and patronising. For example, in your reply you say “Please be assured we are well aware of the role he played at Gettysburg”, yet in my enquiry I wrote that when I visited the Center and asked the staff about Krzyzanowski the reply I received was “never heard of him”.

Arlington National Cemetery. All photos Felix Molski

By explaining away the omission of Krzyzanowski from the exhibits in the Visitors Center the inference can be made that there was a formal selection process to determine who and what would be included and who was to be left out of the 12 galleries covering 139,000 feet of exhibit space at the new Visitors Center built at a cost of over one hundred million dollars.

Who were the candidates?
What selections criteria was used and how was it weighted?
Who were the people on the decision making panel?
How was the balance between intensity and comprehensiveness worked out, for example, whether 2 candidates should both be included with less detail about each or just one fully detailed exhibit and the other left out completely?

Selection processes entail meetings and correspondence. From your response it can be inferred that Wladimir Krzyzanowski was considered but found wanting when compared to others, to a degree that warranted his total exclusion from the 139,000 feet of exhibit space available. He wasn’t considered worthy even of a small display at the minimal cost of say a few hundred dollars or so to be expended out of the budget of over $100 million.

Nonsense!

What attributes of Krzyzanowski were included in his profile?
In what areas was he found wanting compared to the exhibits that only just made it in? That is, those exhibits at the margin of being put in or left out.

I find it very interesting that the Civil War and Underground Railroad Museum of Philadelphia which in 2006 was located at 1805 Pine Stand which had only a small fraction of the 139,000 feet of exhibit space which is available at the Gettysburg Visitor Center, chose to include Krzyanowski in their displays from their massive, rare and valuable collection of civil war artefacts that they could select from.

President Roosevelt, who was rated great enough to be included as one of the four Presidents in the Mt Rushmore monument, assessed Krzyzanowski important enough to have him disinterred and reburied at Arlington Cemetery (photographs attached) the nation's most sacred shrine. The 1937 reburial ceremony included a nationwide address in front of the President of Poland, who had been invited as a special guest. Was the occasioning of this event considered from the point of view of evoking visitor interest at the Gettysburg Center. Useful in this respect, too, is the fact that Krzyzanowski was a close relative, a first cousin, of one of the world’s greatest ever composers (Chopin), offering a compelling story of a man who volunteered to fight for the abolition of slavery and rose from a humble private on enlistment to the level of a Brigadier General who played an important leadership role in stabilising Cemetery Hill on the 2nd day of the Battle of Gettysburg.

James S. Pula, a Vice Chancellor and Professor of History at Purdue University, authored a thoroughly documented scholarly biography titled: For liberty and justice: The life and times of Wladimir Krzyzanowski. The book is still in print and I had to buy it from Amazon because it wasn’t stocked at the Gettysburg store. Was the Museum not aware that this book existed and was still in print or is there some other reason for it not being stocked? Has Professor Pula, an expert on Krzyzanowski, ever been invited to give talks about the General at special events at Gettysburg?

There seems to be an anti-Polish bias amongst some historians and some gatekeepers who control what will be included and what will be left out from American historical museums. For example, Kosciuszko, a significant figure in the American war of Independence and who played a significant role at Fort Ticonderoga is censored out from the museum. There is not even a single word about him on their Museum website, even though this anomaly has been pointed out to the museum management. On the other hand at West Point, Kosciuszko is properly honoured. The garden Kosciuszko built while at West Point is even being restored and markers placed to describe his important role at West Point. The story of the building of the garden is described in a recording that can be listened to by visitors to the garden located on a cliff face leading to the Hudson River.

Casimir Pulaski who had told General Washington: "I have come where freedom is being defended to serve it, and to live or die for it” was killed while fighting for American independence at Savannah, yet he was excluded from the Monument Arch at Valley Forge. To their credit when politicians became aware of the dishonour of the omission they corrected it by engraving Pulaski’s name onto the monument in 1950, 33 years after it had been erected.

Francis Kajencki documents this egregious omission and correction together with other examples he discovered of the anti-Polish bias of some historians, writers and museum information ‘gatekeepers’. Kajencki painstakingly researched primary source material to provide example after example of this bias. It is published in his book titled: Discordant Trumpet.

One last point, though I believe that the other European volunteers who had leadership roles and fought in the US Civil War should be honoured in some way at the Gettysburg Visitors Center, none of them have anywhere near the compelling attributes of Krzyzanowski. Lumping them together in your reply does not make them equivalent.

I patiently await your considered reply addressing each of the issues I have raised. Hopefully, I will not have to wait 33 years before the egregious omission of Krzyzanowski name from the Gettysburg Museum is corrected.

Yours sincerely
Felix Molski

PS I will visit Gettysburg again and I hope you educate your staff better about Krzyzanowski because I will ask them: “what do you know about Krzyzanowski?” But this time I will write the names of the staff members that tell me they have never heard of him.

Lincoln outside Gettysburg Museum

Memorial Arch at Valley Forge

W e-mailu do Redakcji Felix przytacza bardzo buduj±c± historyjkê.While visiting museums I always like to challenge the guides on their knowledge of Kosciuszko, Pulaski, Paderewski or in this case Krzyzanowski. I enjoy the conversations that ensue. In most cases their knowledge is surprisingly good. For example at Mt Vernon (home of George Washington) there was a volunteer reenactor, a Scottish guy playing the role of Dr James Craik, Washington's doctor for 45 years and close confidant. He was in period costume with authentic accent, calling on his audience to ask him questions. I threw in a few curly ones about Washington, which he answered fully and correctly. Then I hit him with what I was sure would catch him out. I asked Dr Craik: - What did General Washington think of Kosciuszko's contributions to the war?

I was astounded!!!!!!!!!

He gave a detailed account of Kosciuszko's American life. He summed up by saying in his Scottishapp brogue: "Ah yes, Kosciuszko, a fascinating man. A great man. A man ahead of his time." Ernestyna, wouldn't you have been astounded also? The bonus of all this was there were about a dozen parents with their children listening to his wondurful narrative on Kosciuszko.

F.M.

Names of the Generals who were with Washington at Valley Forge. Pulaski's name was omitted from the Memorial Arch erected at Valley Forge in 1910. Historian and journalist Ed Dybicz of Swedesberg, Pennsylvania noticed the error in 1950. He called the omission to the attention of Pennsylvania Governor James Duff, who in cooperation with the State Legislature promptly added Pulaski's name to the available space at the end - out of alphabetical order