History

At the end of 1961 a group of leading Polish archivists decided it was time to form an organisation uniting all archivists, regardless of their place of work or union affiliation. This initiative was launched mainly by people related to the Archival Section of the History Lovers Society and the Executive Board of the Cultural Workers Trade Union as well as by employees of Warsaw state archives. An organising committee was created, headed by Olimpia Staroń and consisting of: Irena Sułkowska, Wanda Lipińska, Andrzej Wróblewski, Andrzej Igielski, Józef Żeglicki, Maria Bielińska, Stefan K. Kuczyński, Czesław Jesionek, Andrzej Wachowiak, Halina Chruścicka, Józef Tomanek, Henryka Czarnak. Several other people were invited to collaboration: Jadwiga Jankowska, Zygmunt Kolanowski, Andrzej Tomczak, Bolesław Woszczyński and Karol Weyman. The organising committee was supported by: Henryk Altman - General Director of State Archives at that time, prof. Kazimierz Konarski, prof. Adam Stebelski, prof. Piotr Bańkowski, prof. Henryk Jabłoński - academic secretary of the Polish Academy of Science and prof. Tadeusz Manteuffel - president of the Archival Council and director of the History Institute of the Polish Academy of Science. The organising committee drafted a provisional version of the statute of the Polish Archivists Association and appointed a Temporary Executive Board headed by Jadwiga Jankowska. The function of general secretary was given to Józef Żeglicki. An appeal was made to all employees of state and in-house archives. The appeal was also spread among archive workers in political, trade union and church organisations, as well as among librarians, museum workers, academics and cultural educators. At the end of 1964 preparations for the first national meeting began. On 27 March 1965 the First National Convention of Polish Archivists Association Delegates took place in Warsaw. The delegates adopted the statute of the Association and chose the new Executive Board headed by Jadwiga Jankowska (president) and Józef Żeglicki (general secretary).