The article aims to present the research interests of docent Wiktor Ormicki – a geographer and lecturer at Jagiellonian University. These revolved around the aspects of the eastern territories of the Second Polish Republic and manifested, among other things, in his habilitation thesis entitled Życie gospodarcze Kresów Wschodnich Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej (The Economic Life of the Eastern Borderlands of the Republic of Poland, Kraków 1929) His interests comprised the migration issues in the northeastern voivodeships. Ormicki left notes from his research trips to the eastern borderland, which were an interesting source for the analysis of the socio-economic life in the eastern provinces of the Second Polish Republic. He described the daily activities and customs of the inhabitants of these regions. He listed economic facilities (including brickyards, distilleries, and sawmills) operating in the places he visited. He also paid attention to the towns and villages and the natural environment at the eastern border. Both the travel notes and Ormicki’s scientific works are a valuable source for researchers of everyday life and the economy of the eastern border of interwar Poland.

Juliusz Świecianowski (1834–1900) was a member of the Academia di San Luca, Academia di Belle Arti in Bologna and the Congregazione dei Virtuosi al Pantheon in Rome (today Pontificia Insigne Accademia di Belle Arti e Lettere). He was an architect by education but, above all, a theoretician and inventor. He published his universalistic aesthetic theories alluding to occultism and Kabbalah in many languages. At the same time, he described and patented practical technical devices – faecal dryers, crematoria, and disinfection furnaces – whose task was to free the world from harmful miasms. He was remembered as an eccentric and visionary, believing that the essence of the world’s beauty lies in harmony resulting from the combining of all aspects of nature and human creation and that the salvation for this beauty is the development of the art of hygiene, which will free the world from the harmful fumes of civilization.

The article resumes the discussion of the astronomical interests of the Polish Brethren, instigated by Tadeusz Przypkowski. Focusing on the first two decades of the 18th century, it presents their participation in research conducted by Gottfried Kirch and his family. Reconstructed from the journal entries of the first astronomer of the Royal Prussian Society of Sciences, this area of the Socinian activity included various forms of participation in astronomical observations – as spectators, students, assistants or co-observers. The source material left by the Kirch family confirms that the astronomical interests of this community did not expire at the beginning of the 18th century and were maintained by the next generation of Arians.

During many years of scientific activity, Józef Łepkowski (1826–1894), archaeologist, the first Polish professor of this discipline and protector of monuments, looked after the collections belonging to the Krakow Scientific Society (the predecessor of the Academy of Arts and Sciences), the Jagiellonian University, and the Czartoryski dukes for whom he acquired the collection items. The archaeological artifacts, works of art, works of artistic craftsmanship, collections of weapons, and other artifacts obtained by him constitute a valuable part of the resources of Krakow institutions to this day. The article shows the methods by which, in the 19th century, objects were acquired for state institutions, scientific societies and large, aristocratic collections. The author takes as an example the fate of the collections of Karol Rogawski (1820–1888) and Bolesław Podczaszyński (1822–1876). Encouraged by Łepkowski, Rogawski donated the book collection, archaeological artifacts, and works of art and crafts to the Jagiellonian University and the Czartoryski dukes. However, a specialized part of Podczaszyński’s collection – archaeological artifacts with notes on prehistoric finds from the territory of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth – was purchased by the Academy of Arts and Sciences as a result of Łepkowski’s efforts. Therefore, thanks to the long and complicated measures taken by this tireless researcher, museum expert, and protector of monuments, the collections survived in their entirety to the present day, avoiding the dispersion to which many other private 19th-century collections were subjected.

The article presents Henri Marmottan and his cooperation with the Warsaw Zoological Cabinet. Marmottan, a correspondent of Antoni Waga and Władysław Taczanowski, sent bird specimens to Warsaw. From Poland, he received both birds and insects for his collections. The text also includes an analysis of Marmottan’s correspondence with Konstanty Branicki. In the collections of the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, where the Marmottan collections are kept, the authors found specimens sent from Poland, and in the collections of the Museum and Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences, specimens sent by him from Paris. Marmottan’s scientific cooperation with Polish zoologists is presented in the context of the epoch, the Russian occupation of Warsaw, the Franco-Prussian war, and the Paris Commune.

The article contains the instruction for charcoalers and state officials supervising them, which was developed in 1826 by the Government Commission of Revenues and Treasury of the Kingdom of Poland. The document is provided with a historical commentary. The edited source contains information on charcoaling technology and the organization of charcoal production for the needs of government iron industry. The said instruction was in force between 1827–1828 and was withdrawn at the beginning of 1829.

The article is an edition of the source important for the history of the development of the railway network in Poland, namely the Information on the approach railways operating in the Warsaw Governorate (Viedomosti o suŝestvuûŝih v Varšavskoj guberni pod″ezdnyh železnyh dorogah). This document is in the archival collection labeled Warsaw Governorate Government no. 1181, kept in the State Archive in Warsaw. In the Information on the approach railways operating in the Warsaw Governorate, there is data on the public and industrial narrow-gauge railways operating in the Warsaw Governorate in 1911, as well as the standard-gauge industrial sidings of the Warsaw-Vienna Railways. This document is of great historical importance due to the degree of destruction and scattering of technical archives related to the communication infrastructure in the territory of the Russian partition. It contains important, previously unknown elementary technical and operational data of these railways and sidings.

The History of Cartography, t. 4, Cartography in the European Enlightenment, cz. 1–2, red. Matthew H. Edney, Mary Sponberg Pedley, University of Chicago Press, Chicago – London 2019, ss. 1764, 479 haseł/artykułów, 954 ilustracji.

The author indicates the extensive range of topics of Cartography in the European Enlightenment, which works both to its advantage and disadvantage. It is a disadvantage because only some of the subjects in the volume were discussed thoroughly, focusing on the scope of the entire project. The authors had the opportunity to carefully select objects, map makers, facts, and phenomena they presented, but the final product has many holes, as often happens in the case of encyclopedias. An advantage is that it provides a canvas that can be filled with topics that have not yet been covered. There is an impressive number of 207 authors who wrote 479 entries and articles, and their work, thanks to a well-devised structure of topics, also gives future researchers of the history of the cartography of the European Enlightenment a chance to systematically expand and deepen their experience with the book. Thematic cross-index allows the reader to search for information similarly to using keywords on the Internet. It is beneficial and intuitive, especially for young people, allowing them to easily navigate and browse the publication.