Album fotografii członków Towarzystwa Strzeleckiego Krakowskiego ze zbiorów Muzeum Krakowa

Abstrakt

THE PHOTO ALBUM OF THE MEMBERS OF KRAKÓW’S MARKSMEN’S CONFRATERNITY IN THE HOLDINGS OF THE MUSEUM OF KRAKÓW

The photo album of the members of Kraków’s Marksmen’s Confraternity from the second half of the 19th century (inv. no. MHK-240/BrK/1-58) is certainly one of the most interesting musealia in the collection of the Kraków Fowler Brotherhood. It is a valuable source of information on the history of the Confraternity in the 19th century, its internal organization and structure, as well as history of photography and photographic studios in Kraków, Vienna, Pest, Lwów, and Paris. The group of photographs contains the images of 57 representatives of Kraków’s Marksmen’s Confraternity who were actively engaged in the organization’s activity from the 1830s until the 1870s. e format of the photographs is that of carte de visite which was very popular at the time, and had been introduced by aParis photographer André Adolphe Eugène Disdéri. e album even features aphotograph produced by Disdéri himself – the portrait of Wincenty Wolff, banker, senator, member of the National Government in 1848, chairman of the Kraków Merchants’ Congregation, deputy-chairman of the Charity Society, member of the Archbrotherhood of Mercy and the Bank of Piety, as well as president of Kraków’s Marksmen’s Confraternity of many years’ standing. Wolff  was one of the most energetic members of the Confraternity, however, the album also contains the photographs of his less in uential shooting comrades who did not hold any top positions in the organization. Among such moderate members we will nd e.g. Jan Kanty Knowiakowski, the owner of aconfectioner’s shop, Michał Borowski, an o    ce worker, and Henryk Czerny, the owner of acoal yard. All three had their photographs taken by the outstanding Kraków photographer Ignacy Krieger in his studio at the corner of 42 Main Market Square and 1 St John’s Street. Among other proprietors of Kraków photo ateliers represented here we should mention: Walery Rzewuski who is the author of 30 portraits in the album; Szymon Balicer and Awit Szubert (each of them contributing three photographs); as well as Adolf Hübner and Ignacy Mazek (each being the author of two images). Foreign photographers whose works can be found in the discussed group are represented by: György Klösz of Pest, Teodor Szajnok and Ignacy Stahl of Lwów, Emil Rabending, Karol Jagemann and the Kundegraber & Lichtenstern atelier from Vienna, as well as the aforementioned André Adolphe Eugène Disdéri from Paris. The photographs gathered in the album of Kraków’s Marksmen’s Confraternity represent awide range of gures which make up the cross section of the class of Kraków’s activists, tradesmen, merchants and hoteliers – undoubtedly the social class that had great impact on the condition of the city in the discussed period. By analogy, the photographic studios respect the condition of Kraków photography from the 1830s until the 1870s.