Looking for new historical sources?

If so, research sources that are collected by community archives. You can find there e.g. family photos, private documents and diaries. Polish scientists consider sources of community archives to be very important for researches with new approaches, e.g. every day life, cultural life and social life.

Community archives are archival initiatives which are independent from the state activities. They are also a new place where every one can look for different historical sources.

Community archives exist also in different countries in the world. You can read about archives in Kanada, New Zeland, Italy, Germany, Great Britain and Poland here.

Photo: Warsaw University, Author: Nihil novi

The 90s: American Peace Corps in Poland

Did you know that the volunteers of the American Peace Corps were working also in Poland?

I worked on a one-year documentary project about their work. Effects of the project are a bilingual publication and a bilingual Web-presentation: www.korpus.karta.org.pl (pl) and http://korpus.karta.org.pl/?lang=en (en). Some collected photos you can see here.

Polish Eastern Borderland in Węgliniec

Commemoration of an expulsion can help to overcome the trauma of expelled. This is the case with the Museum of the Polish Eastern Borderland in Węgliniec, which I visited.

The history of the Museum you can read and see here. It's of course a very emotional and not professional museum, but it's interesting to see and to listen what the whole equipment, documents and photos mean for the museum's founder Alfred Janicki.