jonas aistis Museum

Contacts
Address: J. Aisčio g. 1, Rumšiškės, LT-56335, Kaišiadorių rajonas.
Tel./fax (+370 ~ 346) 47 611.
E-mail: verdasa[at]takas.lt
Director – Gražina Meilutienė.

Information for visitor

Opening hours:
Monday to Friday 8–17.

Additional services:
The excursions should be reserved beforehand by phone 
+370-346-47611, +370-346-47584.

Collection
The Museum accumulates things, narrative and visual material about poet Jonas Aistis (1904–1973), his relatives, friends and acquaintances, the church-village of Rumsiskes.

Exposition
It reflects life and creation of J. Aistis: firstly in Rumšiškės, then schoolyears in the Kaunas Gymnasium AUŠRA, afterwards studies in the Kaunas Vytautas the Great University, the period until World War II, the war years, life in USA, creation of J. Aistis in Lithuania and other countries.

Exhibitions
The Museum arranges exhibitions of art, folk art, ethnography, literature and others.

Cultural, educational activity
Joint cultural projects of the Museum and the Departments of Education and Culture of the Kaišiadorys Region Municipality;
Joint educational and cultural projects of the Museum and schools of the Kaišiadorys district;
Arrangement of literary-musical evenings;
Celebration of anniversaries of famous countrymen.

Jonas Aistis biography
Jonas Aleksandravičius (J. Aistis) was born on July 7, 1904 in the Kampiškės village of the Kaunas district.
From 1907 to 1913 he lived in Rumšiškės where ended the elementary school.
From 1919 to 1927 he learned in the AUŠRA Gymnasium in Kaunas.
In 1927 he entered the Vytautas the Great University in Kaunas, the Faculty of Humanitarian Sciences.
From 1936 to 1940 he continued studies at the Grenoble University in France where in 1944 he was granted a degree of doctor of philosophy.
From 1944 to 1946 he worked in the Archives of Nice and in the State Library of Paris.
In 1946 he came to USA and lectured on the Lithuanian language and literature in the Collegium of Marianopolis.
From 1952 to 1968 he worked in the Lithuanian section of the Free Europe Radio in New York.
Since 1958 he worked in the Congress Library in Washington.
The poet’s pseudonyms were the following: Jonas Kossu-Aleksandravičius and Jonas Kuosa Aleksandriškis.
During his life in USA he mostly used the pseudonym of Jonas Aistis and this pseudonym from 1952 became his official family name.
The poet died in 1973 in Washington.

History of the Museum
V. A. Markevičius, the son of J. Aistis’ desk-friend, undertook the initiative to found the museum dedicated to J. Aistis.
Dr. E. J. Morkūnas, R. Arnauskas, the designer, R. Mažulėlienė, the supervisor of the Maironis Museum of Lithuanian Literature also contributed to the establishing museum.
The poet’s sisters V. Kudrevičienė and M. Šlemkienė, E. Aleksandravičiūtė, and M. Aleksandravičiūtė, the nephews Justinas Aleksandravičius and Juozas Aleksandravičius and others presented many exhibits to the Museum. Aldona, the poet’s wife, sent his personal things, books from America.
The Museum was opened on July 12, 1997.
The founder of the Museum is the Kaišiadorys Region Municipality.

Rumšiškės
Rumšiškės is town in central Lithuania, 13 km east of Kaunas, on the right bank of the Nemunas river.
The fortress hills and the barrow graves in the surrounding country-side indicate that the locality has been inhabited since ancient times. Numerous bronze artefacts were discovered in the cremated and non cremated barrow graves (13th–16th centuries) during excavations conducted in 1953–1963.
The earliest mention of Rumšiškės in historic sources goes back to the 14th century. The township, one of four in the province of Kaunas, is mentioned in 1508, while in 1557 there are references to the town and to the royal township, also called eldership. In 1792 the town received the rights of municipal self-government and a town crest, three white lilies on a red background.
The townspeople made their living mainly from the transit trade along the Nemunas and the land route from Kaunas to Vilnius, with another branch leading to Gardinas.
A school for township clerks was founded in the middle of the 19th century.
During Lithuania’s independence (1918–1940) it served as the township seat.
In 1966 was founded the Open-Air Museum of Lithuania in Rumšiškės.