Things have their own history – they speak about people and travels, important places and moments. They are testimonies of their era, carriers of history of the people who looked at and touched them. These are letters, documents, diaries, photographs and personal effects which say more than a thousand words. The Emigration Museum in Gdynia acquired all of them to combine many important stories. Thanks to them – together with you – we want to touch the past.

Thanks to the acquired collections, we can get to know the life of the Polish diaspora better – past and present – to learn something about the centuries-long presence of Poles in almost every country of the globe. We also want to use them to help them reflect on the phenomenon of the exceptional Maritime Station and the entire city of Gdynia, the central point on the map of Polish migration, as best as possible.

Since the beginning of our campaign, we have met with great involvement of people for whom the history of emigration is connected with personal experiences – their own or their families’. Thanks to donations, we managed to collect objects holding emotional value that is difficult to overestimate, but that also have great scientific value. They include souvenirs connected with crossing the ocean on Polish transatlantic cruisers such as the M/S “Batory” and TS/S “Stefan Batory”, and an extraordinary collection of 38 “Emigration Holy Mothers” which gave hope to Polish emigrants. Each day, new items are added to our collections.

The collection of the Emigration Museum in Gdynia has been gathered since 2012. Currently, it consists of over 10,000 items, over half of which have been donated. They can be divided into three main groups:

1. Gdynia and the Maritime Station
2. Departure and trip
3. Life in emigration

Due to the number of items, not all of them can be presented at the permanent exhibition, but all of them have been digitised. Those stored in museum warehouses are carefully secured and maintained.

See what is included in our collections – www.zbiory.muzeumemigracji.pl