[FOUNDATION OF THE MUSEUM FOR THE HISTORY OF HEALTH IN 1944 AND ROLE OF ITS FIRST CURATOR STANKO SIELSKI].

The Museum of the History of Health Care in Croatia, as the first such museum in the southeastern part of Europe, was established by the Croatian Medical Association in Zagreb in 1944. Beside Vladimir Ćepulić (1891 - 1964) the head of the Croatian Medical Association, epidemiologist Stanko Sielski (1891 - 1958), was one of the most prominent personalities to be credited for realizing this project. He was born in Gracanica into a family of Polish origin. After his graduation in Vienna in 1919, he worked as an epidemiologist in Konjic, Prozor, Glamoc and other places in the area of Bosnia, mostly involved in typhoid fever and variola eradication. At the beginning of the Second World War he was in Banja Luka where he was given the duty of director of the Department of Endemic Syphilis Eradication. During 1942 and 1943 his correspondence took place with Vladimir Ćepulić, which is today preserved in the Section of the History of Medicine of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Zagreb. On the basis of this material it was possible to trace the circumstances of the foundation of the Museum of the History of Health Care, how items were collected for its first exhibition, and the role of Stanko Sielski in preserving the medical heritage and dissemination of knowledge of the history of medicine to a broader audience.