Erazm Jerzmanowski
Erazm Józef Jerzmanowski (1844-1909) - a Polish engineer, industrialist, community worker and philanthropist known as a man who lit America. For over 20 years he lived in New York being the most prominent figure of the Polish community in the USA of that time. As an energetic industrialist, a patron of the arts and founder of the „Equitqble Gas Light Co.“ in 1882 and its chairman for 13 years, he soon won himself recognition in the industrial spheres. He also established gas companies in Chicago, Baltimore, Troy, Albany, Yonkers, Brookly, Utica and Memphis. He improved the technologies of the gas industry with 17 inventions patented by him in the USA. Erazm Jerzmanowski soon made a fortune and become a Polish millionaire in the USA.
Born on 2nd June 1844 in Tomisławice, completed secondary education in Warsaw and then took part in the January Uprising 1863. He also fought in Franco-Prussian War in 1870 and afterwards stayed in France working for the Jessie de Moteya, a French industrialist specializing in the lighting gas production. In 1873 the company sent him to the USA. Although concentrating intensely on his career, he never forgot about the Polish community. In 1886 he founded The Central Commitee of Charity in New York helping Polish immigrants. It is assumed that in the years 1886-1896 he donated 50.000$ to different social matters. In 1896 Erazm Jerzmanowski together with his wife Anna decided to leave America and settled down in Prokocim ( at that time a small village near Kraków, now a district of the city). Erazm Józef Jerzmanowski died on 7th February 1909. Before he died, Jerzmanowski
set up a prize dubbed “The Polish Nobel Prize”, which after a seventy one year break is granted again by the Polish Academy of Skills. He donated a part of his fortune – an equivalent of 12 kilograms of gold to fund the prize. Its aim was to honor literary, scientific and humanitarian work to the benefit of the home country.
Our assumptions
To present the figure of Erazm Józef Jerzmanowski we decided to create a film devoted to the patron of a Vocational School in Mechanical Secondary Schools’ Complex No 2. In December 2009 we managed to film a few scenes inside the Jerzmanowski Palace. The rest has to be carried out until April 2011. In the photos you can see the stages of our preparations for the shooting. The 2nd form of Hairdresser Technical College took part in creating hairstyles and make up. So, the first stage of preparations took place in the hairdressing workshops supervised by Dominika Gajewska and Aneta Klimczyk. Historical costumes were borrowed from the Folk Theatre. The costumes looked beautifully in the historic interiors of the Jerzmanowski Place and in the tradition room of our school. The directors were Adam Job and Jarosław Widocki. So far, only the first step of the entire undertaking has been carried out. But what is the most important, young people taking part in the preparations got to know a lot about Erazm Józef Jerzmanowski ‘by the way’.
A visit of a German group in Cracow
From 28th April to 3th May 2010, as a part of a Comenius project we were visited by a group from Darmstadt, 9 teenagers accompanied by 2 teachers. The group visited Cracow, Wieliczka and Auschwitz as well as got to know with the figure of Erazm Józef Jerzmanowski. Beneath we present the photographs from the visit.
