The Museum of Agriculture and Food Industry in Szreniawa is housed in an eclectic palace built in 1852-1853, and in thirteen pavilions constructed in 1964-1981 for exhibition purposes. The Museum has built on the traditions of the Warsaw Museum of Industry, Agriculture and Farming (1875-1939), which made valuable contributions to Polish science, economy and culture, and which was the first institution of its kind in Poland. The Szreniawa Museum opened in 1964 and since 1966 has been a member of the International Association of Agricultural Museums (AIMA) reporting to the International Council of Museums (ICOM), which is affiliated with UNESCO. In 1975, the Museum was granted the status of a national museum.
The holdings are divided into several sections, including Agricultural Technology, which has a collection of hand- tools, wooden ploughs, listers, ploughs, treadmills, tractors, locomobiles and steam-powered machines, such as steam ploughs; Livestock Raising and Breeding, Veterinary Care and Feed Research Section, which has relevant preparations, instruments and equipment; Bee-keeping Section with a collection of beehives, bee-keeping and honey-making equipment, and bee products; Plant Cultivation and Gardening Section, which has a collection of seeds of cultivated plants, crop protection substances and sowing, planting, cultivation and harvesting tools and machines; Transport Section, with yokes, carts, sleighs, coaches, field railway, harnesses, etc.; Food Processing Section, including exhibits related to baking, brewing, sugar-making, oil-pressing, potato processing, dairy-making, butchery, fruit and vegetable processing, and wine-making; Rural Crafts and Trades Section, including those pursued by smiths, coopers, wheelwrights, carpenters, joiners, tanners, leatherworkers, weavers and potters; Ethnography Section, showing furniture and household equipment, folk costumes, ceramics and folk art; History Section, which includes banners of agricultural associations and organisations, nineteenth and twentieth century Polish and foreign medals, coins of local circulation, payment tokens for agricultural labour and seals, archival materials, posters, printed material for special occasions; Art Section, which has paintings, prints and drawings, sculpture and decorative textiles of rural subject-matter; Visual Documentation Section, including postcards, photographs and films. There is also a separate section maintaining records pertaining to manorial farms and food processing buildings constructed before 1939.
Permanent exhibitions: The History of Agriculture from the Eighth to the Eighteenth Century; Rural Crafts and Trades; Food Processing and the Agroindustry; Bee-Keeping and Honey-making; The History of Polish Agricultural Aviation; The Study of Soils; Drainage; Crop Protection and Mineral Fertilizing; Agro-ecology; Technological Progress in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Agriculture; History of Polish Horticulture; Livestock Feeding; Veterinary Science; Livestock Husbandry; Methods of Crop Harvesting, Winnowing, Cleaning, Drying, Grading and Storage; Traditional Rural Transportation and Communication; The Social History of the Countryside from the Tenth to the Twentieth Century; Polish Agriculture's Energy Sources in History; Rural Water Supply; Silage-Making.
Muzeum Narodowe Rolnictwa i Przemysłu Rolno-Spożywczego w Szreniawie
ul. Dworcowa 5
Szreniawa
Region: woj. wielkopolskie
Phone: (+48 61) 810 76 29
Fax: (+48 61) 810 76 42
WWW: www.muzeum-szreniawa.pl
Email: muzeum@muzeum-szreniawa.pl