The Collector’s Office

The collection of the Reverend Franciszek Tyczkowski from the holdings of the Wróblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences and the Akmenynė church

The collection of the Reverend Franciszek Tyczkowski (1891–1982) amazes first time viewers by its diversity and conveys the collector’s permanent interest in early manuscripts, prints and artworks that changed hands many times. To amass this collection, it was essential for the collector not only to have the knowledge of foreign languages, but also to be well informed and constantly maintain social connections with people in his environment.
Franciszek Tyczkowski was born in Meriden, Connecticut (USA). In the early 20th century he moved to his parents’ birthplace in the Suwalki district and attended the Sejny Priest Seminary. Having arrived in Vilnius for the first time in 1916, he returned there after his studies at the Warsaw University and the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome.

The beginning of Tyczkowski’s collection goes back to the 1920s, a period related to his studies. At that time he was appointed the rector of Saint Michael the Archangel Church in Vilnius (1925) and took care of the construction of Saint Theresa of the Infant Jesus Church in Akmenynė. His collection was open to society. Tyczkowski used to lend his exhibits to publishers and exhibition organisers.

In the 1930s the collection was transferred to the Wróblewski Library. In 1981 the documents held in the manuscript collections were included in Franciszek Tyczkowski’s collection, but it was not until the recent decades that works of graphic art were assigned to this collection as well.

A visitor to “The Collector’s Office” can explore, leaf through and analyse the Reverend Tyczkowski’s main collections of manuscripts and graphic art dating from the 17th century to the first half of the 20th century: cuneiform tablets, postcards, manuscript books of Vilnius Bernardine nuns, archives of the Akmenynė church, prints, prayer book pictures and bookplates. The exhibition also contains a reliquary, chalices and candleholders that the Reverend Tyczkowski acquired for Saint Theresa of the Infant Jesus Church in Akmenynė. In 1932 Edmund Zdanowski photographed these objects, and the priest published postcards and gave them out to the sponsors of the church under construction.

The collections amassed by the Reverend Tyczkowski reflect the spread of the veneration of images of Saint Michael the Archangel Church in Vilnius, the traditions of piety of Vilnius Bernardine nuns and Barefoot Carmelites, and present the history of the Akmenynė church and manor, their inhabitants and the entire epoch.

Exhibition curator dr. Neringa Markauskaitė.
Architect and designer Ieva Cicėnaitė.
Organisers: Church Heritage Museum and Wróblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences.
Exhibition sponsors: Lithuanian Council for Culture and Vilnius Archdiocese.