The Polish Library in Paris is one of the oldest and richest émigré institutions in terms of its collection. Located in the heart of Paris, on the island of St Louis, it was founded in 1838 on the initiative of leading representatives of the Great Emigration. From the very beginning, its activities went far beyond the tasks of a traditional library, which led to it being perceived as a kind of unofficial embassy of Polish culture in France.

Establishment of the Polish Library in Paris
After the fall of the November Uprising, there was a group of political refugees in France who were active in the development of Polish culture abroad. In 1832, they established the Polish Literary Society. Its aim was to create an institution that would collect historical memorabilia and all publications - past and present - concerning Poland. This mission came to fruition as early as 1838, with the establishment of the Polish Library in Paris. The immediate initiators were the first President of the Society, Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski, as well as Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz and Karol Sienkiewicz. The nucleus of the Library's future resources was the combined book collections of four émigré organisations: The Literary Society, the Scientific Aid Society, the Historical Department and the Statistical Department.

Initially, the Library was housed in the small flat of one of the émigré activists. As it turned out, however, it was insufficient to house the rapidly expanding book collection. With money collected in fund-raising events and donated by members of the Polish émigré community, a 17th-century town palace at 6, Quai d'Orléans on the Isle of St Louis was purchased in 1853. It was once a place with strong ties to Poland. It was on the Isle of St Louis that the Hôtel Lambert was located, and after the Second World War, the Libella literary publishing house and the Galeria Lambert operated here. Today, the only reminder of the island's Polish past is the Library.

History of the institution
The Literary Society, in 1854 transformed into the Historical and Literary Society, managed the Polish Library until 1893. When, towards the end of the nineteenth century, its activities visibly weakened and the number of members declined, it was decided to place the Library in the hands of the Academy of Arts and Sciences in Krakow. The institution then assumed a strictly scientific and research-archival character, becoming at the same time the Scientific Station of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences in Paris. From 1899 to 1926, the oldest of Adam Mickiewicz's sons, Władysław, headed the Paris Library. On his initiative and thanks to him making all his father's memorabilia available, the Adam Mickiewicz Museum was established at the Library in 1903.

At the beginning of the 20th century Library was facing serious financial problems. An attempt to save it was made by the next director, Franciszek Pułaski. In addition to carrying out repair work on the building itself, he also reorganised the activities of the institution. In the interwar period, he introduced changes that made the Library a centre of Polish culture in France, similar to the French Institute in Warsaw. All collections not directly related to its profile were sent back to Poland, where they enriched the museum and library collections.

After the German army entered Paris in June 1940, the building of the Polish Library was occupied and the book collections stored there were taken to Germany. Fortunately, a significant part of the collections had managed to be evacuated earlier to Paris museums and to libraries and other locations in the south of France, so they were saved.

In 1946, a reactivated Historical and Literary Society took over curatorship of the Library. Nowadays, drawing on its historical activity, the Polish Library in Paris pursues its mission with scientific, cultural, exhibition and publishing activities. It is not only a place where collections are made available and scientific works are carried out. You can come to the Library to visit one of its three museums, to see a temporary exhibition, to listen to a concert or a lecture.

Collection of the Polish Library in Paris
The Polish Library in Paris houses unique cultural treasures from the 15th century to the present day. Collected over the years as gifts by Polish émigrés, French Polonophiles or Polish artists residing in France, they have had a chance to survive thanks to the existence of the Library.

At present, the Library's book collection comprises around 200,000 volumes, including 50 incunabula and several thousand old prints. These include manuscript collections, government records and, above all, the archives of the Great Emigration (documentation of emigration societies and institutions, diaries and letters). In addition to these, the Library houses an artistic collection of 25,000 drawings and engravings, 15,000 photographs, almost 1,500 paintings, 1,000 posters, 600 medals and coins, 350 sculptures. Among the most valuable treasures are the three earliest editions of Nicolaus Copernicus' work De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium, fragments of Queen Bona's correspondence, souvenirs of Fryderyk Chopin and Maria Skłodowska-Curie.

In addition to the Adam Mickiewicz Museum, already mentioned, the building also houses the Bolesław Biegas Museum and the Fryderyk Chopin Salon. The exhibition devoted to Chopin is the only one of its kind in the French capital. It features several of the composer's manuscripts, as well as mementoes connected with his death: a death mask, a cast of his hand, a lock of his hair and an armchair from his last flat on Place Vendôme. The Bolesław Biegas Museum, meanwhile, presents the artist's work against the background of Polish art of the 19th and 20th centuries. Changing annually, the exhibitions present a wide cross-section of Polish painting and sculpture held in the collection of the Polish Library. These include works by, among others, Piotr Michałowski, Henryk Rodakowski, Jacek Malczewski, Leon Wyczółkowski, Tadeusz Makowski, Cyprian Godebski and Olga Boznańska.