Muzeum Harcerstwa, Warsaw

Muzeum Harcerstwa is Warsaw’s museum devoted to the history of Polish scouting. It was created on June sixth, two thousand one, by decision of the head of the Polish Scouting Association, which also runs the institution. The ambition behind it is much older: plans for a scouting museum were already being discussed in nineteen sixteen.

During the years between the world wars, Wacław Błażejewski pushed to give those plans a permanent home, until the outbreak of war halted the work. After the Polish Scouting Association resumed its activity, its headquarters gathered keepsakes and records that became the basis for this museum. The collection spent several years in the Egyptian Temple at Łazienki before moving here, to the association’s headquarters on Konopnickiej Street.

Its purpose is not simply to store badges, papers, uniforms, and memories: the museum safeguards them, studies them, shares them through exhibitions, and uses them to pass on scouting’s educational ideals. Its shows have traced scout post, sailing education, wartime service, uniforms, and the movement’s founders.