MINIEWSKI J. - Wizerunki uczestników powstania styczniowego. Series I. 1903

[MINIEWSKI Józef] - [Images of participants in the January Uprising. Series I]. Lviv [1903]. Zaklad światłodruków. 8, plates 12. card folder.
Portfolio new with preservation of elements of original folder, boards in very good condition. Commemorative photo album published on the 40th anniversary of the January Uprising. The folder was published without a title, on its first page (preserved here) was printed a poem by Z. Onyszkiewicz (signed with the code name Z. O.) "They rose, because despair ordered, because the executioners were overbearing [...]". Ten years later, J. Miniewski published series II and III with the title "Images of participants in the January Uprising," and such a title was accepted for series I presented here. The offered portfolio includes plates: 1. circle of Polish officers in St. Petersburg from 1860 and 61; 2. Polish military school in Genoa and Kuneo; 3. last members of the National Government; 4. commanders and senior officers from 1863 and 64; 5. commanders and senior officers; 6 . Commanders and Smiechowski Detachment; 7. Civilian organization; 8. Officers of Jozef Miniewski Detachment; 9-10. Partisan participants; 11. Civic Committee arranging the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the January Uprising; 12. Department of Tow. Mutual. On the preserved leaf of the original portfolio an anonymous donor placed a handwritten dedication from the period: "To the beautiful and righteous Pole, in token of heartfelt kindness and in memory - an old lancer".
On the 150th anniversary of the outbreak of the January Uprising, the H. Łopaciński Publ. Library Society published a reprint of the first series of Miniewski's portfolio, with the comment: "The choice of this publication was determined by the fact that none of the libraries in Lublin have this album in their collections, in the country it can be found only in a few." Very rare!
J. Miniewski (1841-1926) - fought as a colonel in the January Uprising in the unit of I. Smiechowski, later under the command of A. Jeziorański and M. Langiewicz; after the fall of the uprising, he left for France, from there to North Africa, where, among other things, he worked on the construction of the Suez Canal. Ca. 1871 he returned to Galicia, actively worked for former insurgents; left his memoirs. He was awarded the Order of Virtuti Militari and the Cross of Valor.