Katharina Kreuder-Sonnen’s “From Transnationalism to Olympic Internationalism” was my favorite text for this week not only because of its micro-historical approach but also because of my personal connections with the content. When I first read the abstract, and then read how Odo Bujwid was working in his flat on Ulica Wilcza, I instantly thought of Marcel Koschek, a Ph.D. student in the transnational history department who helped me navigate QGIS mapping software over the summer for my Esperanto research project. His work as a Ph.D. candidate includes mapping locations of Warsaw doctors who used Esperanto and belonged to various international organizations to communicate before the Great War.
Perhaps as I am also an English major, I loved the story-telling tone of this micro-history paper. Details like “Nevertheless, the Mianowski Foundation consented to give him a further grant to furnish his own laboratory. He accommodated it in the kitchen of his private apartment on Wilcza Street in Warsaw. Above his door he proudly hung a sign reading ‘Bacteriological Laboratory’ (Pracownia bakteriologiczna)” (213) truly reinforces the quaintness of the described historical actor. Sometimes such actors are glamorized in our telling of their historical experiences, but these careful details portray Odo as an ordinary but talented person foremostly fascinated with and dedicated to his field of study. Similarly, the dialogue that unfolds in the paper and details about vaccinating himself to prove his allegiance (look to page 214) brings this rivalry between Kochian and ‘Pasteurian’ medical spheres of thought to life. As seen in Sonnen’s citing of sources written by Bujwid himself, this micro-historical narrative is achievable perhaps mostly because of Sonnen’s chosen sources.
Bujwid’s wife Kazimiera Klimontowicz-Bujwidowa who was involved in socialist and feminist organizing in Kracow in addition to helping her husband with vaccine production reminded me of a Scottish woman I came across in my summer research. Isabella Mears was a Scottish doctor and Esperantist who married another aspiring doctor she met at medical school in Ireland. Together, they created Woodburn Sanatorium, an open-air treatment center for tuberculosis in Edinburgh that opened in 1899. Her use of open-air treatment opposed many previous medical treatment methods of tuberculosis. Mears was involved in the Red Cross, missionary work and wrote about her work in Esperanto. I find it interesting how Mears seems so similar to Kazimiera in their professional work relationships with their husbands, various academic and social interests, and their work to cure people of deadly diseases. I think these sorts of connections prove the value of transnational microhistory as we can zoom in on historical actors to connect the bigger picture on how various phenomena happen across national boundaries.