We are pleased to invite you on a journey back to a time when the rhythm of library work was defined by the steady clatter of typewriters and the smell of sealing wax. The quiet rooms of the Special Collections hold objects that today evoke sentiment and curiosity, though they were once part of everyday routine.
The collection includes, what one might call, legendary technology from before the digital age: pencils from the Pruszkowskie Zakłady Materiałów Biurowych (Pruszkowskie Office Materials Plant), felt stamp pads, round typewriter rubber erasers and simple yet ingenious razor sharpeners. Alongside there are nibs from the Craft Supply and Sales Cooperative, a wooden inkwell, and sealing wax used to seal cabinets and doors housing the most valuable incunabula and manuscripts.
The Olympia typewriter attracts particular attention – a symbol of an era when every word required attention and corrections required patience. It is accompanied by a card catalogue, an analogue system for organising knowledge that for decades paved the way to sought-after books.
The collection also includes audio cassettes, including recordings of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s music (including Messe C major KV 317 “Krönungsmesse” and violin concertos in G major KV 216 and A major KV 219, Deutsche Schalplatten, Berlin, ca. 1980), as well as name day postcards from the 1970s, published by the National Publishing Agency RUCH, with photographs by Adam Johann and Stanisław Czarnogórski.
The most valuable and unique items include glass negative plates – including works by Raphael Eduard Liesegang (Der Mond Wargentin und Schickard, Der Mond, Pico ein isolierter Mondberg) and a colour plate depicting the Kopet-dag – mountains on the border of Turkmenistan and Iran.
Each of these objects is a fragment of a larger story – about the work of librarians, the history of technology and the ways of preserving images, words and sounds. On National Old Stuff Day, we should view them as witnesses to a time that reminds us that before information became digital, it smelled of paper, ink and hot sealing wax.
