Collectors and museum enthusiasts

We also hear about an interesting archaeological-archival-artistic collection in connection with the exhibition opened on 10 June 1888 by the Nowy Sącz branch of the "Sokół" Gymnastic Society, which was viewed by over 600 people who had the opportunity to familiarize themselves with about 1,200 exhibits, including armor, urns from the Stone and Bronze Ages, several dozen paintings, several hundred coins, parchment privileges, rifles, sabres, pistols, etc.

The creation of collections at the end of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century was implied by aesthetic, emotional, hobbyist and scientific considerations. Collections of works and specimens were created in the homes of the intelligentsia of the wealthier bourgeoisie. As established by Professor Tadeusz Aleksander, in Nowy Sącz the following people devoted themselves to the passion of collecting: Dr. Onufry Trembecki (doctor, mayor of the city in 1870), Józef Wieniawa-Zubrzycki (grandson of Dr. Onufry Trembecki, bibliophile, photography enthusiast), Stanisław Klemensiewicz (naturalist, director of the 2nd Gymnasium in the years 1908-1920). Apart from Nowy Sącz, in Lviv, a famous collector of written sources from Galicia, including Sącz, was Antoni Julian Schneider, a famous 19th-century documentalist and encyclopedist, who left behind, among others, the so-called "Krakow Files". Later, among the group of keen collectors we find above all Dr. Jan Dudziński - a doctor, stamp collector, entomologist and Roman Szkaradek - a postal inspector, philatelist and numismatist. Among the more famous collectors from Nowy Sącz we should also mention Mieczysław Jarosz (in the interwar period the owner of the pharmacy "Pod Białym Orłem", Rynek 27), the owner of paintings by Julian Fałat, Józef Chełmoński, Leon Wyczółkowski and Artur Grottger

Even more important due to their public nature were the archaeological collections gathered at the beginning of the 20th century in the C.K. Higher Gymnasium. They were created at the initiative of Stanisław Rzepiński, a teacher of Greek and Latin, and in the years 1899–1912 the principal of the most important secondary school in Nowy Sącz at that time, who, as a well-known lover of ancient culture, organized in the school he managed one of the largest archaeological cabinets in Galicia at that time, supported by the Austrian Ministry of Religious Affairs and Education with the amount of 200 crowns. Stanisław Rzepiński's assistant was a high school student Gustaw Przychocki, later a classical philologist, professor and rector of the University of Warsaw, professor of the Jagiellonian University, member of the Polish Academy of Learning, and Aleksander Demkowicz, a high school professor in the years 1898–1910. Later, the role of the collections' guardian was performed by Michał Pelczar (principal of the 1st Gymnasium in Nowy Sącz in the years 1912–1933) and Wojciech Hadała (gymnasium teacher in the years 1912–1916). During World War I, the collections of the cabinet were taken to Biała. After the end of the war, Stanisław Rzepiński personally brought them back to Nowy Sącz. In 1921, the cabinet had 1,750 coins and 1,529 other exhibits and inventory items. During World War II, the collection was dispersed; most of it was lost forever.