Did you know that art played a pivotal role in Poland’s 1989 Solidarity Movement? Solidarity was a broad anti-bureaucratic, workers-rights movement in 1980s Poland that eventually became a powerful political force. In addition to publishing over 500 newspapers and broadcasting their message via pirate radio stations, the Solidarity movement used art, particularly posters, to communicate their revolutionary message, and even created a new school of art—The Polish Poster School—along the way. Special Collections has a treasure trove of hundreds of posters, handouts, and newspapers. There are copies of the iconic work of graphic designer Jerzy Janiszewski (who created a style of writing known as Solidaric) as well as Tomasz Sarnecki’s well-known poster that features an image of Gary Cooper from the 1952 film “High Noon.”
View the finding aid for this collection, now available online, for more information about the Solidarity movement and the Solidarity materials held in the Library: http://aok2.lib.umbc.edu/specoll/Solidarity/index.php.
Want to come look at the records yourself? Contact Special Collections to set up an appointment at x52353 or speccoll@umbc.edu. We also hold open research hours on Monday through Friday, 1pm to 4pm, with additional hours from 4pm to 8pm Thursday nights.
This post was written by Theresa Donnelly