The De Republica Institute has launched two projects “Famous unknown” and “Forgotten Polish Romantics” to recall outstanding, remaining in the shadow, persons of Polish science and culture. The history of Polish scientists and their discoveries that revolutionized the world many times is still hidden in the libraries, museums and researchers’ notes.

The project “Famous unknown” aims to restore the memory of Poles who have made a special contribution to world science. The list of already described characters includes Maria Zakrzewska – a creator of the first hospital for women in the USA; Ernest Malinowski – a railroad builder in Peru and Ecuador; Karol Stefan Szolc-Rogoziński – a traveller, discoverer and researcher of Cameroon; Kazimierz Romuald Nowak – a traveller in Africa, a pioneer of Polish reportage; Ferdynand Karo – a pharmacist-botanist, the most distinguished Polish researcher of Siberia and Erazm Jerzmanowski – “the man who illuminated America”.

The dissemination of knowledge about the great Poles is also aimed at the project “Forgotten Polish Romantics”. It involves a review of a dozen less known, slightly forgotten persons of Polish culture and science from the 19th century. The project is part of the celebration of the Year of Polish Romanticism announced by the Sejm of the Republic of Poland.

In the project, every second Saturday, new texts will appear on the website of the De Republica Institute and on Facebook, presenting selected profiles including for example Karol Appel – an outstanding Polish linguist; Józef Chodźko – a topographer and surveyor, one of the world’s first researchers of the Caucasus; Aleksander Kokular who initiated the antiquarian trade in works of art in Warsaw, or Feliks Wierzbicki – a Polish doctor and traveller, the author of the first description of California in English.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński