The collection dates back to 1906, when Włodzimierz Kulczycki (1862–1936), professor and later rector of the Veterinary Medicine Academy in Lviv, acquired the first items. From the start, he approached collecting Oriental fabrics and carpets as an academic endeavour: he gathered literature concerning carpet-making and systematically familiarised himself with this area of Eastern material culture. He himself authored several works on carpets. During the interwar period, Włodzimierz Kulczycki’s collection was exhibited several times. His son Jerzy (1898–1974), art historian and doctor of philosophy, inherited his father’s passion and gradually increased the collection’s size during the interwar period, approaching the undertaking in the same way as his father. The collection was intended to show carpet-making from all the peoples of Asia Minor, Central Asia, Iran, and the Caucasus.