POLAND

POLAND / POLSKA.

25th anniversary of the Antarctic Treaty, 1961-1986.
Antarctica map and potrait of Antoni B. Dobrowolski.
First stamp in a set of 2, issued on 23.06.1986.
Face value: 5 złotych.
Design: Stefan Małecki (1924-2012).
Printing: Offset lithography.
Printed by PWPW (Polska Wytwórnia Papierów Wartościowych), Warszawa.
Print: 5,076,000 copies.
Size: 40,5 x 27 mm.

Catalogues
- AFA No. 2922.
- Fischer No. 2885.
- Michel No. 3033.
- Scott No. 2733.
- StampWorld No. 3036.
- Stanley Gibbons No. 3047.
- Yvert et Tellier No. 2843.

On December 1, 1959, the twelve countries that had carried out scientific activities in and around Antarctica during the 1957-1958 International Geophysical Year signed the Antarctic Treaty in Washington. The Treaty entered into force on June 23, 1961, and has been accepted by many other nations. The Treaty recognizes, among other things, the interest of all humankind that Antarctica continue to be used exclusively for peaceful purposes and shall not become the scene or object of international discord. The signatory countries were: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Chile, France, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Antoni Bolesław Dobrowolski (Dworszowice Kościelne, June 6, 1872 - Warsaw, April 27, 1954) was a Polish geophysicist, meteorologist and explorer. While still a student of biology, physics and chemistry at the University of Liege (Belgium), he was part of the Belgian Antarctic Expedition (1897-1899) as an assistant meteorologist. During World War I, he lived in Sweden and studied snow and ice formation there. After the war he returned to Poland and finished his treatise on ice and snow crystallography, Historia naturalna lodu (‘Natural History of Ice’), published in 1923. He was an active promoter of polar research in Poland. During the second International Polar Year (1932-1933), he provided assistance to the Polish expedition that wintered on Bear Island. He headed the organizing committee for the 1934 Polish expedition to Spitsbergen and also committed to the 1938 Polish expedition to the Oscar II Land. He gave his name to a research base in Antarctica, Dobrowolski Island, Dobrowolski Peak and Dobrowolski Glacier (the latter two on King George Island). 

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Thanks to Kazimierz R. Leszczyński for his contribution (http://leszkarozdub.blogspot.com).