How the museum began

In 1961, the idea of a museum brought together the Bystrzyca Friends’ Circle, local residents and representatives of the town’s match factory. The initiative had both community and industrial backing: collecting objects connected with fire met the experience of people who made matches. Employees of local companies, particularly the Bystrzyca Match Industry Works, volunteered to adapt the historic buildings for exhibitions. Their contribution involved creating the museum’s home, not just gathering future exhibits.

The official opening took place on 19 July 1964. The institution focused on the history of fire-lighting, including devices, match packaging and labels.

The collection’s scope went beyond collecting boxes. It covered the connections between fire, technology, art and everyday objects, bringing the town’s industrial heritage together with household tools and commercial graphics. The name of this field, philumeny, combines the Greek phileo, meaning love, with the Latin lumen, meaning light. It encompasses the collecting of packaging, labels and objects associated with lighting fires, linking small printed designs with the history of practical devices.