first name: Henryk; second name: Bronisław; last name: Arctowski

Born on July 15, 1871 in the Russian partition, in Warsaw, he died on February 21, 1958 in Washington. He came from a polonized Saxon family – the Artzts. His ancestors came to the former Polish Republic in the 17th century from Württemberg. He appears under this exact name on the list of students of the Royal Gymnasium in Inowrocław (Königliches Gymnasium zu Inowrazlaw), where he also studied in the years 1881-1884. He later received his education at the gymnasium Athénée in Liège, which he graduated with his baccalaureate in 1888 and began his studies in mathematics and physics in Liège. After a year, however, he moved to Paris, where he studied chemistry and geology at the Collège de France and the Mining School of the Sorbonne.  He also studied meteorology and geology in London, Edinburgh and Zurich. In 1893 he got a job as an assistant in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Liège under Professor Walther Spring.

Although his career presented itself as international, he did not renounce Polish culture, and he maintained constant contact with Polish Diaspora living in France (with Maria Skłodowska among others)  It is impossible to deny him patriotism, an example of which was obtaining permission from the Belgian government to polonize his name Artz into Arctowski. It was under the latter name that he published his scientific works.

In 1900, Arctowski married Arian Jane Addy, an American opera singer. Because of him, the artist moved to Belgium and began her career in Europe. Thanks to her financial resources, the woman could support her husband in the early stages of his scientific career. Later on, the couple became actively involved in broad activities within the Polish community. They supported war refugees and organized lectures promoting Polish history, culture, and science.

In the years 1897-1899 Henryk Arctowski took part in the Belgian Antarctic Expedition. He was not only one of the researchers, but also helped to arrange funds for the organization of the venture. During the expedition, he served as scientific director, where he conducted geological, glaciological, meteorological and oceanological research. Thanks to his year-round meteorological studies, it was determined that Antarctica is even colder than previously thought. Arctowski was also the first to see an analogy in the geological structure of the southern Andes and the archipelagos at the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula and the mountains on its surface.

From 1899 to 1911, Arctowski directed the meteorological station of the Belgian Royal Observatory at Uccle, where he also compiled research materials from the expedition to Antarctica. At the same time, he conducted international scientific activities aimed at promoting knowledge about the least known continent on Earth. Among other things, he developed projects for a network of meteorological stations around Antarctica or a Transantarctic expedition across the South Pole using a mechanical means of locomotion.

In 1907, he asked the Belgian government to organize another expedition to the continent of Antarctica, but he did not finish his plans his due to the political situation in the Congo.

Arctowski also organized the Natural History Department at The New York Public Library from 1911 to 1919, where he served as its director. During this period, he conducted research on the impact of climate change on agricultural productivity. He also published a number of papers on heliogeophysics and Sunspot zoning.

During the First World War, he was actively involved in the affairs of Poland. When the Institution for Peace was established, he applied to be a part of the Commission for Polish affairs. He then prepared a comprehensive fourteen-part Report on Poland (Report on Poland, compiled for the use of the American Delegation to the Peace Conference). It presented a detailed demographic, economic, historical, cultural and political situation of the country. He also cooperated with the Polish delegation in 1919-1920 during the negotiations in Versailles near Paris. He served as an advisor to Roman Dmowski and Ignacy Paderewski.

In 1920 Arctowski and his wife settled in independent Poland. Because he wanted to devote himself to scientific work, he refused to accept the position of Minister of Religious Denominations and Public Enlightenment. Instead he became a professor at the Jan Kazimierz University in Lviv.

In 1921 he took over the Department of Geophysics and Meteorology, which was soon transformed into an Institute. He remained its director until the outbreak of World War II. He then created the only institution in the Second Polish Republic, which studied oil in the Carpathians or dealt with climate fluctuations or aerology for gliding purposes. 

Henryk Arctowski was admitted as a member of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1935. On behalf of this institution and the Jan Kazimierz University, the scholar and his wife left for Washington in August 1939. The professor, as chairman of the Commission on Climate Change, was scheduled to take part in the Congress of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics. However, the outbreak of World War II disrupted the professor’s further scientific plans in Poland and prevented the Arctowski family from returning to the country. They settled permanently in the United States, which citizenship he received in 1940.

In 1939, Arctowski received a position at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., where he worked until 1950. During this time he conducted research in the field of solar radiation, in particular changes in the solar constant and their influence on weather changes.

Despite the emigration, the Arctowskis became involved in Polish life and supported their compatriots in the country. Among other things, they sent books to scientific institutions in Poland and organized events promoting Polish culture. An example of such happening is the New York Academy in 1943 on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of the death of Nicolaus Copernicus.

Henryk Bolesław Arctowski died on February 21, 1958 in Washington, D.C., and his wife also passed away a few weeks later. The ashes of both, in accordance with the last will of the professor, were brought to Warsaw in 1960 and laid to rest in the Powązki Military Cemetery.