Archives and Museum of the University of Łódź
Pałac Biedermanna
ul. Franciszkańska 1/5
91-431 Łódź
Archives of the University of Łódź
ul. Pomorska 149/153
90-236 Łódź
Tel. (42) 635 57 26
archiwum@uni.lodz.pl; dararch@uni.lodz.pl
Free admission
Mondays – Fridays: 9 am – 3.30 pm
Advance booking is essential (please call the Director; visits can be arranged at other times).
Director: Dariusz Klemantowicz PhD
Staff: Elwira Grabowska-Stefko MA, Michał Kop MA, Agnieszka Mikołajczyk-Jarno MA, Karol Pietrzyk MA, Agnieszka Ziomek MA
The idea of establishing a university museum in Łódź was first put forward in the 1990s. Alongside taking over and renovating the palace of the renowned industrialist, Alfred Biedermann (1866–1936) for the needs of the university, the idea also emerged of establishing a museum on the university’s 60th anniversary (which fell in 2005) and to designate several rooms in the newly acquired building for this very purpose. However, the need to organize space for lecture halls and storage for the library of art history and cultural studies turned out to be more pressing. The museum project was not abandoned, but it had to be postponed. In 2008 the suggestion was put forward that it could be organized in the representative rooms of the rector of the university in the Biedermann Palace. The staff of the Archives of the University of Łódź were in charge of implementing this concept. Materials collected by the Archives of the University of Łódź – of which the museum is an integral part – constitute the core of the collection. The museum was officially opened on 26 May 2008, on the university’s 63rd anniversary. The inextricably linked archives and museum form a single entity with two specific lines of activity, which supplement each other. The collections not only illustrate the history of the University of Łódź, the fate of its lecturers and students, but also present the common heritage of Łódź, the Łódź region, and Poland. The place where the museum is located – the representative rooms in the Biedermann Palace – also provides the opportunity to present the history of the Biedermann family in the interiors of the residence of the Łódź industrialist. Visitors can tour the following permanent exhibitions: ‛Ze zbiorów Archiwum UŁ’ (From the University of Łódź Archives), ‛Początki UŁ’ (Beginnings of the University of Łódź), ‛Biedermannowie na starej fotografi’ (Old photographs of the Biedermann family), ‛Profesor Witold Broniewicz, polski prawnik z Litwy’ (Prof. Witold Broniewicz, a Polish lawyer from Lithuania), ‛Z dziejów pedagogiki społecznej na Uniwersytecie Łódzkim’ (From the history of social pedagogy at the University of Łódź), ‛Zabytkowe przyrządy naukowe’ (Historic scientific instruments).
