|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
Maria
Sklodowska Curie's
exhaustive
investigative work and brilliant research
brought to science new tools for advanced
work. She opened the door to the mystery of
atomic energy.
|
|
|
Maria
Sklodowska Curie
was a scientist, teacher, author,
wife, mother and honorary member of PWAA. She is best known
for her work done on radioactivity, which led to the discovery
of polonium and radium. In 1906 she succeeded her husband,
Pierre Curie, as professor of general physics at the University
of Paris – the first time such an honor was accorded to a
woman. While fulfilling the obligations of this high position
she continued her research. After being awarded the Nobel
Prize for Physics with her husband, Madame Curie was later
awarded, in her own right, the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in
1911.
Although she did not live in Poland
after 1891, her loyalty to the land of her birth and affection
for it were deep and constant. Her learning and ability were
always at Poland’s service. The radium which was offered
her by the women of the United States when she visited this
country in 1921, which Polish Women’s Alliance was part of,
was magnanimously turned over by her to the Radium Institute
of Warsaw. It was eminently appropriate that Madame Curie
was elected a member of the Academy of Science of Poland and
was appointed honorary professor at the University of Warsaw.
On the main wall of the Madame Sklodowska Curie Room at
PWAA’s headquarters hangs a portrait
of this eminent scientist painted by the Chicago artist, Ladislaus
Krawiec; Madame Curie’s daughter, Eve, at a special ceremony
attended by the consular generals of France and Poland in
1941, unveiled the portrait.
|
Helena
Paderewska
was an individual who when faced with tragic and desperate
times in the course of history was able to draw upon
an inner strength and make superhuman sacrifices to
help her fellow human beings.
During the period
of the First World War and immediately afterwards, Poles
suffered great misery and want. When it was very hard
indeed to keep up one’s spirit there appeared this woman
of extraordinary ability – Helena Paderewska. She organized
aid programs and lifted morale, and was given the name
“Great Soul.”
She carried emergency
aid to the wounded and the invalids; to displaced persons
and the homeless; to the aged and the orphans on both
sides of the Atlantic, and founded the Polish White
Cross.
So great were Paderewska’s
humanitarian efforts that Pope Benedict XV conferred
upon her the golden cross – “Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice”
– an honor very rarely bestowed upon women, but richly
deserved by this woman of honor and dignity and also
an honorary member of PWAA. The small museum at national
headquarters houses some personal objects of Mrs. Paderewska,
and you are welcomed to visit and learn more about her.
|
|
| |
|
Helena
Paderewska
|
|
|
Maria
Konopnicka
was born in Poland in 1842, but
her life was shaped by the events which happened a decade
before in 1831. The failure of the tragic Polish uprising
of that year lingered in many a Polish household and it certainly
shaped her formative years. This love of country and belief
in the greatness of Poland was fostered by her first teacher
- her father. He also cultivated in her an honest and sincere
attachment and understanding of the peasant folk, which lasted
a lifetime.
Konopnicka came in contact, quite early
in her life, with the farm and farm worker of her country.
She learned that he was poor, that he was dependent upon the
fertility or infertility of the soil, upon rain, wind, and
the sun. She also knew that someday he might even have to
leave his small tract of land in order to survive. When she
became a writer these themes were woven into her stories and
poetry. She created written pictures of her people and her
country and with these literary works she always conveyed
her faith in the future of Poland.
For this faithful service to her country, Konopnicka received
an uncommon, posthumous reward, when Poland became free again
her poem, “Rota,” which is an oath of undying fidelity to
a country and to the ideals of liberty became a national song
of Poland. Polish Women’s Alliance made her an honorary member
and at one time published, both in Polish and English, a book
which gave an overview of her life and works.
|
|
Maria
Rodziewicz, another
Polish writer, was also shaped by her country’s struggles.
She was born in Grodno in 1863, the year of another tragic
Polish uprising. After the failure of the insurrection, her
parents who had participated in it were arrested and sent
to Siberia. A czarist amnesty in 1871 allowed her parents
to return, but they were not allowed to return to their own
city or residence so the family moved to Warsaw, and eventually
lived on her uncle’s estate in Polesie.
It was while living in Polesie and
struggling to keep her family’s estate going that Rodziewicz
learned there was strength in work and perseverance. Her
motto became “work and persevere” and it rang true in her
literary works almost like a military command.
Rodziewicz is best known for her masterpiece
“Dewajtis,” which is representative of the border populations
of Poland and their economic struggles and denationalization.
She was considered a modern writer of democratic ideas who
espoused hard work as a way to national strength.
In her literary works she also wove
the thread of today with the tradition of the past. Rodziewicz
strongly believed that “culture does not thrive on sand and
it is not formed by one generation – it is the result of many
previous generations, and therefore, we must not forget what
we owe to those who were before us.”
|
|
|
