Tadeusz Wróblewski

Tadeusz Wróblewski, (Lithuanian: Tadas Vrublevskis, November 8, 1858 – July 3, 1925) was a Polish-Lithuanian noble, politician, lawyer, bibliophile and cultural activist. He supported the democratic wing of the krajowcy movement. Wróblewski sponsored a large library in Vilnius (the Biblioteka Wróblewskich).

Tadeusz Wróblewski was born to a family of a famous homeopathic doctor. His uncle Walery Antoni Wróblewski was one of the January Uprising leaders in Lithuania and later General of Paris Commune.

After graduating from a Gymnasium in Vilnius, Wróblewski did not have a chance to get a doctor's diploma because he was expelled from Saint Petersburg surgical-medical academy and later from Warsaw University for participation in revolutionary organizations. In 1884 he was exiled to Siberia for such revolutionary activities. Few years after he was released from exile in Tobolsk Governorate, Wróblewski took equivalence examination and graduated from St. Petersburg University with a master's in law.

For some time he was working as an assistant to a lawyer in Saint Petersburg. After his father's death in 1891 he came back to Vilnius. His father left him a library, which Wróblewski further expanded using most of his inherited wealth and a great part of his income as a lawyer. His main interest was Lithuanian history and especially Vilnius history. The library had a large collection of valuable manuscripts, maps, documents, plans, photographs, postcards, linotypes and various museum artifacts. In 1907 he acquired Plater family collection, including a large art collection.

Wróblewski succeeded in acquiring an extensive collection of Lithuanian Free masons lodge. Major portions of this collection were acquired from Henryk Tartura from Minsk, Russian writer Ivan Yelagin (1725–1794), and Emilja Federowicz, widow of Wacław Fedorowicz. The collection also included items from collections of Michał Dulski, Dominyk Moniuszko, Vilnius University professor Johan Wolfgang Bartolomius Bieniowski. The collection had a complete set of all Grand Duchy of Lithuania masonry loges signs (including all of the 7 level GDL signs), seals, medals, and the "Gorliwy Litwin" (Diligent Lithuanian) loge regulations project manuscript and ritual cup. In 1899 Wróblewski founded and led "Neoszubrawcy" para-masonic organization (discontinued in 1914).

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