Poszuszwie in Lithuania, album [238 photographs] of Antoni Zaborski's collection, early 20th century. (308)

Poszuszwie in Lithuania, album [238 photographs] of Antoni Zaborski's collection, early 20th c. Photo album, 28 x 33 cm. 238 photographs. Private album of collector and researcher of local culture Antoni Zaborski of Poszuszewo, Lithuania. Unique documentation on this colorful person and local culture and history.

The manor house in Poszuszwia in the second and third quarters of the 19th century was owned by Teodora and Piotr Piłsudski, grandparents of Polish Marshal Jozef Pilsudski. There is no evidence that the future leader visited the place. The family's name comes from the village of Pilsūdy, mentioned even before the Pilsudskis settled in the area. The painter Aleksandra Pilsudski (1823-1864), author of numerous portraits of family members and depictions of family estates, grew up in the manor. The mansion burned down in the 1870s.

Antoni Zaborski was born on May 31, 1850, on the family estate in Paszuszwiach (Kiev region), then in the Kaunas province. He studied at universities in Vilnius and St. Petersburg, but after his father's death had to interrupt his studies and return home to manage the family estate.
Ludwik Krzywicki, who had been involved in digging barrows in Lithuania for several years, got to know Antoni and often visited Pashushva. In his memoirs, he described Antoni Zaborski as a moderately wealthy landowner whose fertile estate allowed him to live a prosperous life.
While building roads and a brick parish church in the neighboring town of Krakiai (Kiev region), Antoni allowed gravel mining on his lands. In 1900, workers discovered several skeletal graves during their work. It turned out that the same ancient cemetery existed at the site, which had been discovered during road construction in 1887. The findings caught Anthony's attention and fascinated him. He was overwhelmed by an abiding desire to amass his own collection. Since then, the passion for collecting has occupied an increasingly large part of his life. Antoni Zaborski became an avid collector and collected everything that seemed "historically important" or "local" to him. His goal was to establish the National Museum of Samogitia in Vilnius. His collection included archaeological finds, medals, coins, artwork, weapons, early publications, armor, porcelain, glassware and interesting ethnographic and bibliographic collections. Antoni Zaborski bequeathed his collection to "Vilnius" - he expressed such a will in his will. This meant that the whole thing went to the Vilnius Society of Friends of Science. Zaborski's unexpected encounter with archaeology and the realization that he had no knowledge of the subject forced him to seek contacts with people who would help him fill in the gaps in his knowledge, provide help and advice as experts. First of all, he turned to Maria Butrymówna, and later to Erasmus Majewski, the most famous archaeologist of the Kingdom of Poland, who was living in Warsaw at the time. Today, the State Archeological Museum in Warsaw stores Antoni Zaborski's letters, written in 1900-1904 and 1906, as well as photographs of part of his collection. The preserved documents are a valuable source of knowledge about A. Zaborski himself. Zaborski and his collections. Autobiographical and even confidential information can be found in these letters, but the subject of archaeology and conservation of finds predominates. The letters ask for specialized literature, advice and consultation.

The above biography is from Maria Krajewska's work "ANTONI ZABORSKI AND HIS COLLECTOR'S PASSION"

https://www.istorija.lt/data/public/uploads/2020/10/la_39_309-342.pdf

https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poszuszwie_(region_kiejdanski)

https://archeologia.uw.edu.pl/swarch/Swiatowit-r1905-t6-s145-148.pdf