MARIA ZNAMIEROWSKA-PRÜFFER – AN ETHNOLOGIST AND MUSEOLOGIST

Born in Kybartai, Lithuania, on 13 May 1898,in the 1930s Maria Znamierowska studied ethnology at theStephen Batory University (USB) in Vilnius under Prof. CezariaBaudouin de Courtenay-Ehrenkreutz and Prof. KazimierzMoszyński. She began working at the University EthnographicMuseum established by Prof. Ehrenkreutz; apart from thecollection of material culture, the Museum researchedinto and collected records of oral and musical folklore.M. Znamierowska organized exhibitions on folk construction,and investigated folk fishery, the topic she dealt with in herMA thesis and doctoral dissertation. In 1925, she married thezoologist and entomologist Prof. Jan Prüffer.Following WW II, Znamierowska-Prüffer and a group ofUSB professors came to Toruń, where she was employedas lecturer at the Chair of Ethnology and Ethnographyof the Nicolaus Copernicus University (UMK). She madeattempts to establish an ethnographic museum resemblingthe Vilnius one at her Chair, however, she was only able toset up an ethnographic section at the Toruń City Museum(1946-1958). Having received Professor’s title in 1955, in1959 she launched a separate Ethnographic Museum inToruń, additionally establishing an ethnographic park bythe museum. Her most important exhibition: ‘TraditionalFolk Fishery in Poland’, was mounted in 1963.Committed to creating open-air museums in Poland,M. Znamierowska-Prüffer also released publicationson ethnographic museology. Having headed the Toruńinstitution for 13 years, she left the Museum boasting thecollection of 15,000 exhibits and an ample Folklore Archive.In 1958-1963, she headed UMK’s Chair of Ethnography,however giving museology lectures until 1988. Sheparticipated in numerous ethnology and museologyconferences around Europe. An active member of thePolish Folklore Association, she held various positions inits structures until 1978, when she became its honorarymember. Retired, she continued her in-field research, andworked on her last publication meant to recapitulate all herresearch into fishery (1988). She died in Toruń in 1990, andwas buried there. The Toruń Ethnographic Museum hasbeen named after her since 1990.