Jan Lorentowicz's article "Polska Stacja Naukowa w Paryżu" ("Polish Scientific Station in Paris") in the magazine "Świat", 1930, no. 16, pp. 6-7 (public domain, reprinted after the Mazowiecka Biblioteka Cyfrowa) describes the activity and collections of the Polish Library in Paris, as well as the activity of the Scientific Station of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences which functioned alongside it, being an institution of scientific and research-archival character. The director of the Library in the years 1926-1956, Franciszek Jerzy Pułaski, agreed to send part of the collection to the new National Library in Warsaw. A museum dedicated to Adam Mickiewicz was organised in four rooms of the Polish Library in Paris. The main initiator of the museum and donor of the poet's memorabilia was his eldest son, Władysław. The article is illustrated with photographs showing the interiors of the Mickiewicz museum.

A modernised reading of the text.

Scientific Station of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Mickiewicz Museum at the Polish Library in Paris.

Alongside the reconstruction of the building and the technical installations completed last July, a major internal reorganisation has begun at the Library. Starting from the assumption that the Scientific Station was to be our intellectual embassy, Min. Pulaski asked himself: what should the Polish Library in Paris be like? What elements should it be composed of? It is clear that it would be superfluous for Poles to create a great general library in Paris, taking into account the whole of universal culture. The great French libraries fulfil this task. Minister Pulaski decided to define the size of the Library's activities with this formula: knowledge could become an extremely valuable acquisition.

With the consent of the Academy, Min. Pułaski decided to donate these eliminated works to the National Library in Warsaw, currently organised by Mr. S. Dembe, which will be in accordance with the will of the donors who deposited their books in the Library with the idea that they will be sent to the country in the future. The onerous task of sorting out the collection was undertaken by the experienced librarian of the Krasiński Library, Mr J. Muszkowski, who, in the course of a few months, separated out from the Polish Library all the works it did not need (on Parisian grounds). As a result of this separation, our National Library received (up to 15 November last year) 24,212 works in 30,439 volumes, and will receive another 12,000 volumes of general prints. In spite of this reduction, the Polish Library in Paris now has 51,000 inventoried and catalogued prints, a rich archive of émigré collections, an excellent collection of maps of Poland (1,600 items), 883 old coins, 300 medals, 21,000 engravings (including 3,000 relating to Poland), editions of Mickiewicz's works, translations and studies of Mickiewicz, and a vast number of magazine cuttings about our poet.

The rational cataloguing of the collection to wy (by author), which has been going on for a number of years, is now complete. Currently, a separation (by content) of works relating to post-war Poland is taking place, in which several thousand items have already been acquired. A catalogue of manuscripts relating to the person of Mickiewicz (1,300 items) has already been put into print. This work, which is being carried out under the direction of the eminent bibliographer Piotr Koczorowski, curator of the Library, is led by Bronislawa Moñkiewiczówna, the reverent conservator of the "A. Mickiewicz Museum" and administrator of the edifice; Mrs. S. Hulanicka, a literary scholar, and Mrs. K. Hulanicka, a writer. S. Hulanicka, a Polish and French writer, and Mr Szymberski, assistant librarian.

Slowly, the Polish Library in Paris is becoming an ideal workshop. I had the opportunity to ascertain this during my several months' stay there. All of the Library's officials, preoccupied with their sense of the task that this institution has to fulfil, spared no effort in being courteous and solicitous in order to facilitate the staff's access to sources and to make studying easier. This has also been experienced by foreigners, who have been coming to the Library in increasing numbers and who have become enamoured of its atmosphere.

It is feared, however, that the further fate of Min. It is feared, however, that the further fate of Minister Pulaski's intentions will depend solely on his personal solicitude for subsidies. The Director of the Scientific Station, in addition to the intense care with which he surrounds the Library, also begins the methodical activities of the Scientific Station itself. First of all, he organises the scientific study of sources on Poland, collected either in the archives of the Polish Library or in French archives.

Next, he endeavours to turn the Library's reading room into a permanent facility for Polish propaganda in France. Members of the Society for the Propagation of Polish Culture in Foreign Countries, headed by Minister Pulaski, held their meetings there. Pulaski is its head. In addition to this, the hall was to become a place of permanent gathering of eminent French scholars and writers, interested in Poland and wishing to speak about it to their compatriots.

This planned action began with the organisation of ten lectures (with discussion) on "Baltic Problems" in the reading room of the Library, which were very successful. They were given by Messrs G. Pages, Professor of the Sorbonne; G. Blondel, Professor of the School of Political Science; H. de Monfort, Secretary of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences; E. Fournol, vice-president of the Slav Institute; P. Charliat, of the Ministry of the Navy; A. Tibal, prof. of the Univ. of Nancy; Ch. Dupuis, member of the Institute; F. de Jessen, editor of the "Temps"; J. Ancel, prof. of the Univ.; H. Hauser, prof. of the Sorbonne. Both the level of these readings and discussions and the resonance of the whole enterprise represent a great triumph of the action launched by Min. Pulaski.

Since the Sejm found it possible to recklessly truncate the arch-modest fund for propaganda, and the august Academy of Arts and Sciences is hiding behind a decree by Franz Joseph - the Director of the Scientific Station in Paris will have to try again the role of the "great almsman". And this is the sadness of our great cultural endeavours....