Leszek Dziedzic (Museum of the History of Kielce) The Oldest Photographs of Kielce (until 1878) The first photograph in the territory of Poland was taken in Kielce in 1839 by the ‘father of Polish photography’, engineer of the province Maksymilian Strasz. Most probably, it was also the oldest photograph of an urban landscape of Kielce. According to the present state of knowledge, the first known picture of Kielce made with the use of photographic technique dates back from 1857. It was the photograph of the Bishops’ Palace from before it was transformed into the seat of the Governor of Kielce. It comes from the photographic Calendar for the Year 1868 by W. Krajewski. Other preserved photographs of the city taken by W. Krajewski come from the years 1862 – 1867. These are three photographs of the Cracow Gate demolished in 1867. The next two shots show the transformation of the Bishops’ Palace into the seat of the province authorities. They may have been taken by W. Krajewski or another well-known Kielce photograph, Wincenty Grabowski. Before 1867, after the completion of renovation works, another photograph of the palace was taken. It was also published in the Krajewski’s calendar. The calendar also includes photographs of the interior of the Kielce collegiate church, Karczówka hill and the view of Kielce from Karczówka hill. Another photograph to be found in the calendar from the end of 1868 shows the construction of the Kielce Orthodox Church of the Ascension in the area of a former canonry. The intention of W. Krajewski was also to publish an album with views of Kielce and therefore in 1874 he took various photographs of the city, including churches, a grammar school, the Bishops’ Palace, Hiller’s school, St. Alexander hospital and a view of the city from Kadzielnia quarry. However, those photographs remained unknown. The collection of Kielce History Museum includes an ‘Album with a Historical Description of Kielce’ from 1878 with 10 photographs of city taken by an unknown author. Here we can see the main square, a view of the Kielce Cathedral, St. Adalbert church, Karczówka hill, Orthodox Church of the Ascention, the seat of authorities of the province (former Bishops Palace), Leonard’s building, Ogrodowa street in the year 1874 and Otwocki-style pavilion standing in the park since 1873 in the place of the present square in front of a band shell. It can also be assumed that at least some woodcuts published in the press in the 1860s and the 1870s had their photographic counterparts, on which they were modelled. However, they still have not been found or they have not survived to this day. Key words: history of photography, Kielce, Maksymilian Strasz, Władysław Krajewski, Wincenty Grabowski