Portrait of Narcissa Żmichowska from the series “Sourcebook”

Started in 2020, Sourcebook is an ever-growing archive of non-normative Polish women’s history. As Liliana Zeic puts it, ft is a project for queer femininity and lesbianism, for Gomorrahites and fol/o wers of Sappho, for different thoughts about queer and separatism, and for the angst of love. I want all of this to stick to you and be stuck to you, and not to be forgotten again so soon. One of the heroin es of Zeic’s project is Narcyza Żmichowska a.k.a. Gabryella (1819-1876) – an educator, conspirator, author of the novel Poganka [Heathen] and a suffragette. She carne from a family of impoverished landowners. Having graduated from Klementyna Hoffmanowa’s school for teachers and visited Paris a number of times, Żmichowska worked as a governess, developing her own educational program me and curriculum for teaching girls. Her educational ideas were not introduced in schools until the 20th century. Żmichowska was also the founder of the first feminist group for women in Polish territory, which she called the Enthusiasts or Rejoicers. “They belonged to the first generation of Polish suffragettes, who consciously chose a solitary and independent life, taking on the same civic responsibilities as men” (Maria WoźniakowiczDziadocz). Living in Warsaw in the 1840s, Żmichowska gathered around her a group of female students – the Enthusiasts. These adolescent girls demanded the freedom to choose their life partners and the right to education and activity in the public space. Żmichowska would ref er to her relationships with girls and women as posiestrzenie (sisterhood), long before the term entered the feminist vocabulary. Tadeusz BoyŻeleński, whose mother belonged to this group, wrote that “exalted, often passionate friendships between women are formed among the Enthusiasts.”