„Ilustrowany Kurier Codzienny” w setną rocznicę powstania (Historia uzupełniona na tle wyników badań z ostatniego dziesięciolecia)

Abstract

On 17th December 2010 Ilustrowany Kurier Codzienny celebrated the 100th anniversary of the release of its first issue. It became an opportunity to summarize the research output of the last ten years in the field which press researchers humorously call “IKCology”. Why only ten years? Less than a decade ago I published an extensive article honouring the 90th anniversary of Ilustrowany Kurier Codzienny in Annales Academiae Paedagogicae Cracoviensis. Studia ad Bibliothecarum Scientiam Pertinentia. It contained a synthesis of the contemporary knowledge about IKC. During the last decade, however, there has been a considerable development in the research concerning the Krakow press of the interwar period including studies on the history of the IKC concern, the paper and people connected with it. At the beginning of the 21st century, when I published my previous text, two PhD theses on IKC were being finished. They served as a basis for three monographs and a dozen of articles written in the years 2005–2006. The results of the research were presented on cyclic Polish and international conferences “Krakow – Lviv. Books, Journals, Libraries in the 19th and 20th centuries” as well as on the forum of the Press Research Committee of the Cracow Branch of the Polish Academy of Sciences. In 2010 a book of remembrance was published to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the paper and the concern. After reading it I realized that it is necessary to verify the knowledge on the history of IKC and take new facts and a new “fresh” view on the topic into consideration. The article incorporates new achievements in the field of so-called IKCology although the publishing limitations make it necessary to produce a more extensive study that would organize the “older” and new knowledge on the issue. It is also a form of honouring the 100th anniversary of a humble magazine that became an all-Polish paper giving rise to one of the most powerful press concerns in this part of Europe; a paper that elevated the Polish press and vernacular journalism to a new European level.