A Department of Puppetry established at the Archaeological and Ethnographic Museum of Łódź, Poland, created in 1979 by Maria Pinińska. Over ten thousand Polish objects related to the art of puppetry and animated films are stored there. The collections include the popular szopka (Nativity scenes) with their puppets – kukiełka (similar to marottes), the oldest dating back to the end of the 19th century – as well as a variety of types of puppets (including several glove puppets of Julian Sójka dating back to the 1930s), stage sets and scenery, plans of sets and staging, puppets used in animation films, more than 3,000 posters and programmes, and also photographs and documents relating to the Polish art of puppetry.

The Department also includes private archives and thematic collections dedicated to the artists, principally stage and set designers: Wacław Kondek, Ali Bunsch, Leokadia Serafinowicz, Jerzy Zitzman.

The entire collection dedicated to puppetry is regularly exhibited in the Museum, but special exhibits are also organized in Poland and in Europe. Since 1997, the curator of the department is Honorata Sych.

(See Poland.)