“I’m fed up with America”. Walery Brochocki’s letter to Maria Faleńska from the Great World Exhibition in 1893

Abstract

The article is an editorial study of the letter by a painter (now forgotten) Walery Brochocki to the Warsaw translator, writer and journalist, Maria Faleńska, sent from Chicago in the summer of 1893 – with a preceding editorial that outlines the situation of the letter and comments on its content in more detail. The material comes from the correspondence of Maria née Trębicki Faleńska from 1856–1895, preserved in the collection of the National Library in Warsaw (reference number 5904, item 1, 3 cards written on both sides).
The letter is worth publishing primarily due to the interesting circumstances it relates to. Brochocki belonged to a three-person committee of delegates escorting selected works of Polish artists to the Great World Exhibition organized on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus (World’s Columbian Exposition). Written in a snappy language, the document contains references to significant (though perhaps not first-class) figures of that time (e.g. son of Helena Modrzejewska, engineer Ralph Modjeski) and the nature of social relations at that time (especially among the Polish diaspora), and a very critical tone of comments about the city of Chicago and the organization of the exhibition itself. When confronted with other sources, it proves the author’s keen observation sense. Brochocki presents himself as a dignified “Varsovian”, a distanced guest from the Old Continent, who describes with interest, but rather unfavorably, the American reality of the late 19th century.