Povilo Gasiūno lietuviškos spaudos kolekcija Rokiškio krašto muziejuje

LTPovilas Gasiūnas - išskirtinė asmenybė lietuviškos spaudos kolekcionierių tarpe. Gimė 1897 m. balandžio 4 d. Rokiškio rajone, netoli Panemunėlio, kur kunigavo žinomas Lietuvos švietėjas Jonas Katelė, rėmęs knygnešius, savo parapijoje steigęs lietuviškas mokyklas. Nuo mažens Povilas augo tokioje aplinkoje, kur visi mokėjo skaityti bei rašyti, kur veikė klojimo teatras, o Motiejaus Valančiaus pasekėjų dėka klestėjo blaivybė. Todėl jis. kaip ir daugelis bendraamžių, nusprendė gyvenimą paskirti prasmingiausiems dalykams - kultūrai bei švietimui [p. 80].

ENPovilas Gasiūnas, a collector of the Lithuanian press, was born on 4th April 1897, in Rokiškis district, not far from Panemunėlis. After coming to live in Kaunas in 1926, he began to collect Lithuanian publications. His aim was to establish a press museum where all the Lithuanian press would be collected. He also collected printings later, when he lived in Klaipėda and Šiauliai. He arranged exhibitions of his collection in Klaipėda in 1937 and in Šiauliai in 1939. There were exhibited more than four thousand copies of interesting and valuable publications. In 1941 his collection comprised 22377 Lithuanian printings. In 1941 P. Gasiūnas gave his valuable collection to his native land handing it to Rokiškis Ethnography Museum for safekeeping. During World War II, over ten thousand printings from his collection were destroyed. Today at the Museum there are preserved the most valuable publications - Jonas Bretkūnas's "Postilė", published in Königsberg in 1591: Lithuanian books, published in the printing-house of Juozapas Zavadskis, who was a famous printer in Vilnius in the second half of the 19th century; a big and valuable collection of periodicals, published in Lithuania Minor. Scientists, bibliographers, students, local ethnographers are interested in this collection.