Forest maps of the Polish Kingdom in the Central Archives of Historical Records in Warsaw

This article examines the history of forest cartography in Poland. It describes the results of two years of research carried out by the author at the Central Archives of Historical Records in Warsaw. The aim of the work was to recognise the forest maps stored in the archives and to give their general description. An original procedure was developed for this purpose. Investigations were limited to the Cartographic Collection, which contains more than 15,000 maps, and the collection of Cartography Department Acquisitions consisting of more than 500 maps. Based on the inventory records and catalogue cards, 1356 items which might be forest maps were selected, and underwent detailed visual analysis. The majority of them (75%) were documented photographically. At the initial stage, 150 maps were rejected because of the formal reasons. The rest included 463 foreign−language maps: 207 in German (mainly from the 1796−1806 period); 242 in Russian (particularly from years 1868−1914; fig. 1), of which 180 showed areas in present−day Belarus; 13 in Latin (mostly from the 1795−1804 period); and one in French (dated 1810). The collection of Polish forest maps consisted of 743 items. The largest group (549 maps) depicted areas of the so−called Polish Kingdom, which existed in the years 1815−1914 (fig. 2). These maps were divided into eight main types. The number of produced maps decreased significantly after the January Uprising. The remaining 194 Polish forest maps cover areas in different regions, date from different periods or are undated. The proposed method enabled the effective attainment of the set objectives, and may be applied to work carried out at other state archives. The number of forest maps held at the Central Archives of Historical Records in Warsaw was found to be greater than the initial estimates. The collected documentation will enable the preparation of more detailed studies, devoted to: Polish forest maps for the area of the Polish Kingdom from the period of 1815−1914, German ones from years 1796−1806 and Russian ones from the period of 1865−1914. Analysis of the other designated groups will be possible once the collections would have been supplemented with items from other archives