100th Anniversary of the WUM Faculty of Pharmacy 1926-2026

A temporary exhibition marking the 100th anniversary of the WUM Faculty of Pharmacy, on view in the Library-Information Centre since 29 January 2026.

Medical History Museum of Warsaw Medical University on the exhibition:

“As of 29 January 2026, the exhibition ‘100th Anniversary of the WUM Faculty of Pharmacy 1926-2026’ is on view on the 1st floor of the Library-Information Centre at ul. Żwirki i Wigury 63. […] Visitors can see genuine treasures - among them the gown of the Faculty’s first dean and the first Polish pharmacopoeia from 1817!”

What to expect

The exhibition, in the Museum’s Temporary Exhibitions Gallery, traces a century of the WUM Faculty of Pharmacy through artefacts from the history of Polish pharmacy. Visiting details are on the Medical History Museum’s website.

Set your expectations accordingly: this is a university anniversary display of memorabilia and books, not a blockbuster. It sits in the Temporary Exhibitions Gallery on the first floor of the Medical University’s Library-Information Centre in Ochota, south-west of the city centre. The story starts well before the anniversary, in 1809, when pharmacy was taught in Warsaw through courses and university divisions. The show opened on 29 January 2026, exactly 100 years after the decree that created the faculty.

What to look for (as named by the museum and the university):

• The academic gown of Prof. Władysław Mazurkiewicz - the original, worn by the faculty’s first dean.
• The dean’s chain of Prof. Bronisław Koskowski, the second dean.
• A volume by Teofil Tugendhold from the Department of Applied Pharmacy - lost during the Second World War and later recovered.
• The first Polish pharmacopoeia, from 1817 - the official book of medicines and pharmacy rules for the Kingdom of Poland.

Context

Poland’s first independent pharmacy faculty was created in Warsaw by a ministerial decree of 29 January 1926; among its organisers was the pharmaceutical chemist Prof. Stanisław Weil, and Władysław Mazurkiewicz was its first dean. Between the wars it trained roughly 30-40% of the country’s pharmacy students, and in 1949 it moved from the University of Warsaw to the new Medical Academy, forerunner of today’s Medical University of Warsaw (WUM). The 1817 pharmacopoeia on display, printed in Warsaw as Farmacopoea Regni Poloniae, is regarded as the first Polish one.

Tickets and time

• Free admission, no ticket needed.
• Monday-Friday 8:00-15:00 (8 AM - 3 PM). Closed at weekends, so this is a weekday visit; plan to arrive well before the early closing time.
• Where: WUM Library-Information Centre, ul. Żwirki i Wigury 63, first floor. The ground floor of the same building holds the permanent exhibition with the Anatomical Theatre - see both in one go.
• How long: allow about 30 minutes for this show, about an hour together with the Anatomical Theatre.
• Groups arrange visits or museum lessons by email (muzeum@wum.edu.pl) or phone (+48 22 116 60 19).
• Who it is for: pharmacy students and graduates, and anyone interested in the history of science and medicine. If you want a large, visual exhibition, this is not it.
• Phone before you go - the museum’s secretariat answers Monday-Friday 8:00-12:00 (8 AM - noon), tel. +48 22 116 60 19. The museum has published no closing date for the show, and the university announced that the anniversary celebrations it opened would last until June 2026.

What the press says

• Życie Warszawy (8 February 2026, in Polish): a report on the opening of the anniversary year that singles out the first dean’s gown, the second dean’s chain and the Tugendhold volume lost during the Second World War and recovered as the key exhibits - zyciewarszawy.pl

Grażyna Jermakowicz, director of the Medical History Museum, whose team prepared the exhibition, stressed at the opening that the story it tells goes back to 1809, not just to 1926 (wum.edu.pl, 3 February 2026).

Updates

• 2026-05-16 - the exhibition was part of the museum’s Night of Museums programme (18:00-01:00) (source: muzeum.wum.edu.pl)

See also

• Medical History Museum of Warsaw Medical University - the permanent collection of instruments and early printed books, plus the Anatomical Theatre, one floor down in the same building.
• Antonina Leśniewska Museum of Pharmacy - a historic pharmacy in the Old Town, the everyday side of the profession whose university training this show covers.
• Old Medical Books Department, Warsaw - if the 1817 pharmacopoeia caught your eye: historic medical books in the former Ujazdów Hospital.

Museum profile: Medical History Museum of Warsaw Medical University.