The year 2015 marks the 80th anniversary of the opening of the Print Room, a new branch of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences housing prints, the forerunner of the present Print Room of the Scientific Library. It functioned independently only for a relatively short time (1935–1939 and 1945– 1953, the gap due to the Second World War). Despite this fact, the Print Room and its’s collection (over 40 thousands prints) is worth our attention. As an exception in the history of the Polish print collections, it was established at a great cost by a scientific institution with no practical support from a museum group or librarians. The authors discussing the history of the Print Room (e.g.K. Krużel, The Print Collection of the Polish Academy of Sciences, „Print quarterly”, XI, 1994, 2, s. 158–166; see note 1) seem to determine the establishment with two facts: the recovery of the print collection in the Polish Library in Paris being restored those days (1926) and the purchase of the Moszyński print collection (1929). However, there is still no answer to the questions concerning the time the decision was made, the people engaged in the establishment and also the Prints Room’s objectives. Since the beginning of the 30ties there were two main concepts regarding the future of the newly acquired prints. First, the proposition was made to incorporate them into one of the existing collections. On the other hand, the idea of creating a new institution was put forward. According to this last opinion, the institution should have spread the knowledge about the graphic art and the history of the printmaking through subsequent presentation. The Print Room created in 1934, and ceremonially opened to the public in 1935, realized boththe expositional and educational programs. The opening was celebrated with an exhibition of English prints, still preserved in the Print Room of the Scientific Library (Figs. 3–8). The article is an attempt to draw the attention to the problems mentioned above. Their solution requires detailed analysis the archival material concerning Academy itself as well as the legacies its individual members.

The year 2015 marks the 80th anniversary of the opening of the Print Room, a new branch of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences housing prints, the forerunner of the present Print Room of the Scientific Library. It functioned independently only for a relatively short time (1935–1939 and 1945– 1953, the gap due to the Second World War). Despite this fact, the Print Room and its’s collection (over 40 thousands prints) is worth our attention. As an exception in the history of the Polish print collections, it was established at a great cost by a scientific institution with no practical support from a museum group or librarians. The authors discussing the history of the Print Room (e.g.K. Krużel, The Print Collection of the Polish Academy of Sciences, „Print quarterly”, XI, 1994, 2, s. 158–166; see note 1) seem to determine the establishment with two facts: the recovery of the print collection in the Polish Library in Paris being restored those days (1926) and the purchase of the Moszyński print collection (1929). However, there is still no answer to the questions concerning the time the decision was made, the people engaged in the establishment and also the Prints Room’s objectives. Since the beginning of the 30ties there were two main concepts regarding the future of the newly acquired prints. First, the proposition was made to incorporate them into one of the existing collections. On the other hand, the idea of creating a new institution was put forward. According to this last opinion, the institution should have spread the knowledge about the graphic art and the history of the printmaking through subsequent presentation. The Print Room created in 1934, and ceremonially opened to the public in 1935, realized boththe expositional and educational programs. The opening was celebrated with an exhibition of English prints, still preserved in the Print Room of the Scientific Library (Figs. 3–8). The article is an attempt to draw the attention to the problems mentioned above. Their solution requires detailed analysis the archival material concerning Academy itself as well as the legacies its individual members.