Scientist of the Day - Stanislaw Wyspianski

Stanislaw Wyspianski, a Polish painter and dramatist, was born Jan. 15, 1869. Wyspianski was incredibly talented at a variety of arts, being best known for his patriotic nationalistic plays, which have made him somewhat of a folk hero in modern Poland. But he also created amazing works in stained glass, and we nominate him as an honorary scientist of the day because of a set of windows he did for the Medical Society House in Krakow, honoring another Polish national hero, Copernicus, and his heliocentric cosmology (see first image above). Not only did Wyspianski create the windows, he designed the entire room, including the wonderful brass staircase bannister with its chestnut leaf theme, echoed in the painted trim on the walls (third image above). The figure in the central panel is Apollo, a personification of the Copernican sun (second image above). You can see the House exterior in the fourth photo above.

Wyspianski designed stained glass windows for a number of churches in Krakow; including the windows for the church of St. Francis, where Wyspianski, as with the Medical Society House, designed not just the windows, but the complete interior (fifth image above).

Dr. William B. Ashworth, Jr., Consultant for the History of Science, Linda Hall Library and Associate Professor, Department of History, University of Missouri-Kansas City