The exhibition was created by a group of students from Zespół Szkoł Komunkacji im. Hipolita Cegielskiego - school located in Poznań, Poland. The group consists of following members: Piotr Gronert, Łukasz Sieradzki, Michał Pięt, Bartosz Barszcz, Karol Konwicki, Wojciech Korcz, Mikołaj Mańkowski, Szymon Siemieniuk, Krystian Olejniczak and Filip Rymaniak. They were taken care of by Mr. Andrzej Kaźmierczak. Exhibition itself was made as a part of Patroni Szkół (Schools Patrons) project, financed by Ministerstwo Edukacji Narodowej and Wydział Edukacja Urzędu Miasta Poznania.

The hero of our exhibition is Hipolit Cegielski - philologist, philosopher, journalist, teacher, industrialist, social activist, salesman, publisher, politician, patriot and most importantly, a great Pole. He belongs to the group of the most outstanding figures in the history of Greater Poland. There are several significant stages in his life, both for him and for Polish society. Starting with his youth years as a student, going through adulthood, during which he worked as a teacher and conducted activity as journalist and philosopher, ending with his career as an industrialist. Since the earliest years of his life, he has been on his own. It was mainly caused by his poor financial situation and early death of his mother. This however, teached him self-reliance and ability to deal with everyday life, which made him one of the most diligent students during the whole of his school life. He graduated from "Marynka" (Liceum Ogólnokształcące Św. Marii Magdaleny - secondary school in Poznań) with the best results. Still, Hipolit wasn't satisfied. He decided to try standing on the other side of the classroom - he became a teacher. During work, he refused to follow the order of school authorities (which was to search the rooms of his students, who were suspected of owning Polish books that were banned at this time), showing great patriotism and loyalty to Polish students. Unfortunately, he suffered the consequences - he was released from his dream job. This situation marked new stage in his life. Cegielski's career as an industrialist began as soon as he established the shop named "Handel Żelazem", which was located in hotel Bazar in Poznań. It changed a lot over the years and is now known as Zakłady Przemysłu Metalowego - facility named after Cegielski himself. Hipolit died on November 30th, 1868 in Poznań. With his death, Polish society lost a person who in a unique way contributed to building cultural identity, patriotism and began modernizing the Greater Poland economy in the Prussian partition.

We hope that this exhibition will break down the biography of this extraordinary man for You. Without a doubt, he deserves to be reminded and commemorated during the 101th anniversary of the restoration of Poland's sovereignty.