The text mentions the archaeologist Antoni Zaborski of Poszuszewo, who bequeathed his collections to the public museum in Vilnius. Among them, items relating to the past of Poland and Lithuania occupy a special place. The entire collection consists of 16 sections, including various documents, coins, folk costumes and other artefacts (Source: Tygodnik Illustrowany, Warsaw 1908, Półrocze I, p. 39, after: Digital Library of the University of Lodz).

A modernised reading of the text

A gift for Vilnius.

A great and valuable acquisition was received by the Vilnius Public Museum at the very beginning of its existence. The archaeologist Antoni Zaborski of Poššivė, Kaunas gubernia, who died this summer, bequeathed his collection to the newly established Vilnius Museum. From his earliest childhood, the deceased was drawn to collecting antiquities of all kinds, and throughout his life he gathered what he could for the museum at his estate in Poššivė, on the banks of the Šūšva river, and sparing no expense or effort, he managed to amass an enormous number of specimens from excavations of various prehistoric periods, as well as numismatics, bibliographies, engravings, paintings, and so on. Particularly included in this collection are items relating to the past of Poland and Lithuania.

A researcher-archaeologist and bibliologist will find there rich materials for studies. An abundant catalogue gives an accurate picture of the vastness of the collection. There are sixteen sections in all, with a total of around 20,000 issues; half of these are very valuable documents and state diplomas, many on parchment, not yet deciphered and therefore not published. The numismatics section is also very impressive, with specimens dating back to the 11th century from among a thousand Polish coins.

In the section of folk costumes of various epochs, special attention is drawn to very original and impressive wooden masks, which we can see here in one of the photographs, one of them famous because it was worn by the notorious bandit Blinda, who was stoned to death in broad daylight by the people of Łukniki during a "fest", i.e. a church celebration. Indeed, one should be amazed at the thought that a single person could have collected so much, while a modest lover did not publicise or boast about it; posterity will only be able to assess the merits of the quiet worker Antoni Zaborski for the culture of Poland and Lithuania.

It was also right that archaeologist Mr Witold Habdank Wojewódzki, in his paper presented to the Imperial Archaeological Institute in St Petersburg, raised this merit, saying: "I cannot omit here in silence the fruitful work in the archaeological field of the citizen of Kaunas gub. A. Zaborski, the archaeologist-lover, who still works on the native land.

His beautiful idea of gathering in his estate in Pošūšėnai rare collections of all epochs of cultural development of Lithuanian life has now been fully realised, and these collections, constantly enriched both in numbers and in content, will become a valuable cultural asset, serving as a foundation for the Lithuanian Archaeological Museum in the near future". Mr Provincial was not mistaken. Indeed, Mr Zaborski bequeathed his large collection to the public museum in Vilnius.