Maria Znamierowska-Prüfferowa

Maria Znamierowska-Prüfferowa (1898–1990) was a Polish ethnographer, professor at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, founder and long-term director of the Toruń Ethnographic Museum, posthumously named after her. She was also an activist of the Polish Ethnological Society.

Biography Early life Znamierowska was the daughter of Stanisław, a customs officer, and Leokadia née Andrzejewski, a governess. She was born on May 13, 1898, in the village of Kybartai, Lithuania, then part of the Russian Empire.

She completed primary school and middle school in Liepāja (in today's Latvia), passing her final exams in 1915. she left in October 1915 for Kiev, where she stayed for nearly 3 years. There, the young Maria became acquainted with the Polish community. At the beginning, she attended lectures at the "Higher Women's Courses" at the Faculty of Philology and in 1917 she moved to the Polish University College .

In this institution, she entered the circle of Władysław Korsak (1890–1949), a Polish activist and a future deputy Minister of Interior. Over the course of two years (1916–1918), she worked in relationship with the youth progress-independent movement "Filarecja" and the Polish Socialist Party (PPS).

At the end of 1920, Maria Znamierowska settled in Vilnius, capital of the Polish-controlled puppet state of Central Lithuania. From this period, her passion for ethnography and museology became engraved in her genes.

In 1932, Maria Znamierowska-Prüfferowa obtained master's degrees in ethnology and ethnography. and in 1939, she defended her doctorate dissertation

Maria Znamierowska got there a full-time position as assistant professor in the Department of Ethnology. She failed to convince the authorities to re-establish an ethnographic museum attached to the university, as there used to be in Vilnius. she used her position to champion the concept of a city ethnographic Museum, together with a skansen, working as an independent institution.

She received the authorities blessing for its creation in 1953. The museum was officially opened on 1 January 1959, in the building of the former city arsenal.

Maria logically became the first director of the Ethnographic Museum in Toruń from 1959 (its creation) to 1972 (her retirement).

The city ethnographic museum is today the only institution in Poland with three ethnographic parks, in Toruń, Kaszczorek and Wielka Nieszawka. Maria Znamierowska-Prüfferowa was a member of its main board till 1978 and vice-chaired the institution between 1967 and 1970. "for merits in the field of professional work". Oskar Kolberg's prize (1976). This naming was officialized on the occasion of the institution's 40th anniversary. A commemorative plaque of the professor was additionally unveiled on that day.