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INTERNET RESOURCES
The Polish presence in North America: An update for electronic resources
C&RL News, November 2005
Vol. 66, No. 10
by Thomas Duszak
Poland was erased from the map of Europe from 1795 to 1918 during the Prussian, Austrian, and Russian partitions. The largest exodus was the Great Immigration when 2.5 million Poles settled in North America between 1860 and 1918. With their compatriots who arrived in the ensuing years, they maintained contact with the homeland (ojczyzna) in varying degrees. Former Choice editor Helen Maclam encouraged “The Polish presence in North America”1 as a guide to information about the immigrants, displaced persons, and refugees; this article is the update for electronic resources. The Library of Congress’s country study of Poland provides a starting point for research. Access: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/pltoc.html.
Organizations
• American Council for Polish Culture. This heritage society has affiliates in the District of Columbia and 16 states. The details of the reinterment of General Pulaski’s remains in Savannah, Georgia, on October 8–10, 2005, are presented here. Access: http://www.polishcultureacpc.org/.
• American Polish Advocacy Council. The council calls itself the voice of Polish Americans in politics and public affairs. Its Web site lists 1,375 Polish American organizations, but its main attribute is the comparative population statistics of Polish Americans in each state, according to the 1990 and 2000 U.S. censuses. Access: http://www.apacouncil.org/.
• Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies. The institute merged with the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in January 2002. The search for Polish on its Web index yields 19 hits, one of which is “Preserving Polonia in America,” a page with four sections: Churches and Schools, Community Organizations and Fraternal Groups, Polish Language Press, and Defining the Polish American Identity. Access: http://www.hsp.org/.
• Canadian Polish Congress (CPC). “Contribution of Poles to the Canadian Society” is one of the highlights of the Web site of CPC. The CPC has 240 affiliated organizations. Access: http://www.kpk.org/english/poles.htm.
• Kosciuszko Foundation. The foundation was established in 1925 to promote cultural exchanges. “About Us” lists 13 recent newsletters. The foundation conducts the annual Chopin Piano Competition and the Wieniawski Violin Competition. “Educational Programs” lists opportunities for volunteer teaching of English and summer study in Lublin and Cracow. Among the Kosciuszko Foundation fellows were three catalogers:Berenika Winclawska, Malgorzata Mozer, and Marzena Zacharska, who cataloged the Alliance College Polish Collection at the University of Pittsburgh. Access: http://www.kosciuszkofoundation.org/.
• Piast Institute. This national think tank develops policy papers on social and demographic topics and provides information about political and economic developments in Poland to the American public. Access: http://www.piastinstitute.org/.
• Polish American Congress (PAC). The PAC Web site is subtitled “60 Years of Service to Polonia.” “The Role of the PAC in Poland’s NATO Membership” is one of the essays listed under the “PAC history” tab. Access: http://www.polamcon.org/.
• Polish American Historical Association (PAHA). Founded in 1942, PAHA, affiliated with the American Historical Association, maintains the flagship Web site for Polish American studies. PAHA’s “Publications” tab lists the tables of contents of Polish American Studies, edited by James S. Pula, and the latest 11 issues of its semiannual newsletter. “Hyperlinks” provides access to 22 related Web sites. Access: http://polishamericanstudies.org/.
• The Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America (PIASA). PIASA was established during World War II when Poland was under Nazi occupation. The scholars who escaped created PIASA to ensure Poland’s cultural development in America. The tables of contents of the Polish Review and its variant predecessor titles starting with volume one (1942) are listed. Access: http://www.piasa.org/welcome.html.
Special collections
• Connecticut Polish American Archives. The Web site for the Connecticut Polish American Archives, which are located in the Elihu Burritt Library at Central Connecticut State University, includes the bibliography of Stanislaus A. Blejwas, one of the most important scholars of the Polish American experience. The “Published Materials in CCPA” tab provides a bibliography of imprints from 15 U.S. states, Toronto, Montreal, and Winnipeg. Access: http://library.ccsu.edu/lib/archives/polish/.
• The Library of Congress’s Polish Declarations of Admiration and Friendship for the United States. This collection includes the first 13 manuscript volumes of the 111 volume set compiled in Poland in 1926 and delivered to President Calvin Coolidge at the White House to honor the sesquicentennial of the Declaration of Independence. The 13 digitized volumes are illustrated with original works by Stanislaw Czajkowski, Wladyslaw Jarocki, and Zofia Stryjenska. The site is searchable by keyword (English and Polish without diacritics) for names, cities, villages, provinces, institutions, and organizations. Access: http://international.loc.gov/intldl/pldechtml/pldechome.html.
• The Polish Room at the Lockwood Memorial Library. The Polish Room at Buffalo State University-State University of New York was established in 1955 to preserve the contributions of Buffalo Polonia. Collection strengths are literature, history, genealogy, and languages. Its Web site features “Related Internet Resources,” which points to maps of Poland and to Maria Anna Jankowska’s Web site at the University of Idaho that contains links to other Polish libraries and archives. Access: http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/asl/guides/polish-room/.
• The Roman B. J. Kwasniewski collection. Housed at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, this collection documents Polish American settlement in Milwaukee during the post-World War I and pre-World War II era. Access: http://www.uwm.edu/Libraries/arch/findaids/mss022.htm.
• University of Rochester Skalny Center for Polish and Central European Studies. This site emphasizes European affairs. Nevertheless, the Skalny Web site is noteworthy for providing access to exchange programs at Warsaw University and the Jagiellonian University in Cracow. See also the film festival and lecture series information. Access: http://www.rochester.edu/college/psc/CPCES/.
Bibliographies
• Alliance College Polish Collection. The Polish National Alliance’s Alliance College closed in 1987. The University of Pittsburgh acquired its collections in 1991, thereby strengthening its Russian and Eastern European Studies Collection. The Alliance College Polish Collection is one of the best Polish American collections in North America, with titles in literature, history, music, science, and economics. Jolanta Strusinska was one of the original catalogers for the Alliance Collection. As of January 2000, 14,500 titles had been cataloged. Access: http://www.library.pitt.edu/libraries/ac/ac.html.
• John Radzilowski’s reading list. This list of Polish American issues is divided into seven categories: General Histories; Historiography; Immigrant Studies; Community Studies; Politics, Labor, Unionism; Society, Religion, Culture; Bibliographies. Access: http://infopoland.buffalo.edu/classroom/lists/polam_list.html.
• Shoulder to Shoulder: Polish Americans in Rochester, New York. This bibliography by Kathleen Urbanic includes a summary of each chapter spanning the years 1890 to 2000. Chapter 4 discusses the Polish Baptists in Rochester, one of 14 Polish Baptist congregations in the United States. Access: http://www.polishrochester.com/contents.htm.
• The University of Minnesota’s Immigration History Resource Center. The center enriches society by preserving and promoting the understanding of the American immigrant experience. “The IHRC Guide to Collections: Polish American Collection” is the recommended first stop. COLLAGE, “Collections Online VisuaL materiaLs of American immiGration and Ethnic history,” directs readers to photographs of Holy Communion services, fraternal groups, and athletic teams. Access: http://www.ihrc.umn.edu/.
• University of Toronto Polish Collection. This collection contains more than 80,000 volumes for the Polish community of 300,000 in the Toronto metropolitan area. It has the largest Polish collection of academic libraries in Canada. Access: http://www.utoronto.ca/crees/news/nov99/polish.htm.
Government
• The Polish Embassy in Ottawa. This site lists the consular offices in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Regina, Calgary, and Edmonton. The link to “Library” has full-text documents about citizenship and visa requirements in Polish, English, and French. There are also full-text links to “Foreign Policy” and “Press Releases.” Scroll down to find news releases from the Polish Press Agency, including one from February 9, 2004, about Poland’s ban on poultry from the United States. Access: http://www.polishembassy.ca/.
• Republic of Poland Embassy. This user-friendly site has a link to “Poland U.S.A.,” which gives the full text of President Bush’s address at the University of Warsaw, June 15, 2001. “Polish-Jewish Relations” has statements from President Aleksander Kwasniewski, Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek, and Jozef Cardinal Glemp about Jedwabne. “Science in Poland” links to the Nobel Laureates born on historical Polish land. This list includes Henryk Sienkiewicz, Nobel Laureate for Literature 1905, and Czeslaw Milosz, Nobel Laureate for Literature 1980, both of whom lived and worked in California. Access: http://www.polandembassy.org/.
Religion
• Father Walter J. Ciszek Prayer League. A native of Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, Ciszek (1904–1984) was a Polish American Jesuit priest who volunteered to work in Russia. He was arrested the year after his arrival in 1940, sentenced to 15 years hard labor, and returned to the United States in 1963 as part of a prisoner exchange. The Father Walter Ciszek Prayer League is the official organization for the promotion of the cause of his canonization. Access: http://nyssa.cecs.uofs.edu/wcpl2.html.
• The Polish National Catholic Church. This is the largest schismatic denomination from Roman Catholicism in North America. The biography of the founder, Prime Bishop Franciszek Hodur (1866–1953), offers a starting point for a study of the breakaway church. Access: http://www.pncc.org/who_founder.htm.
• Pope John Paul II Cultural Center. The naming of a Polish pope was a milestone in world history. Pope John Paul II, who helped promote the dialog on Polish-Jewish relations, made numerous visits to North America, including stops in Toronto, Philadelphia, and New Orleans. The Pope John Paul II Cultural Center is located in Washington, D.C. Access: http://www.jp2cc.org/.
• Saint Faustina. This Web site of Saint Faustina, known as the Apostle of Divine Mercy, conveys the sense of prayer and devotion among devout Polish American Catholics. Access: http://www.faustina.ch/.
• Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa. The 50th anniversary of the Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, was celebrated in 2005. The shrine is the smaller version of its equivalent in Poland. Access: http://www.czestochowa.us/shrine_article_us.php.
• The Sisters of St. Felix of Cantalice. This is a religious order of 2,400 women who take the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience based on the model of Franciscan simplicity. The order’s Web site includes an essay on the congregation’s history, including a bibliography of eight monographs. Access: http://www.stjoenj.net/felix/felician.html.
• SS. Cyril and Methodius Seminary. The seminary was founded in 1885 in Detroit to prepare candidates for the Roman Catholic priesthood to serve Polish American immigrant communities. Although the seminary has relocated, it remains faithful to its original mission. For those with a valid Michigan driver’s license or state ID, the “Library” button links to the search for articles from Michigan eLibrary. Access: http://www.sscms.edu/. The Polish American Liturgical Center, with headquarters at the seminary, publishes Pan z Wami (The Lord Be With You), a serial prayerbook and hymnal available in Polish or bilingual in Polish-English, for Masses and devotions in Roman Catholic parishes in North America. Access: http://liturgicalcenter.org/.
• St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church in Camden, New Jersey. Across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, St. Joseph’s has one of the better parish Web sites. The parish history is intertwined with the history of the settlement of the Poles in Camden. The button for “Historia Parajfi” (Parish History) provides an essay in Polish by the eminent historian Karol Wachtl. Access: http://www.stjoenj.net/.
• The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Pope John Paul II was responsible for the dialogue held semiannually since 1984 to seek common ground between the Roman Catholic and Polish National Catholic churches. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops reports on the most recent ecumenical talks held on May 10-11, 2005, in Buffalo, New York. Access: http://www.usccb.org/comm/archives/2005/05-134.shtml.
Genealogy
• Edward Pinkowski Institute. This institute is dedicated to research in Polish American history and genealogy. The Web site lists full-text essays on themes, such as Oregon’s Polish American governor Ted Kulongoski, the Polish roots of Baltimore congressman Frank C. Wachter (1861–1910), and the Moland House located 20 miles north of Philadelphia, where Pulaski met Lafayette during the Revolutionary War. Access: http://www.poles.org/.
• The Polish Genealogical Society of America. The society’s jubilee index contains 337,925 surnames from 251 churches in 149 cities. The site also gives a subject index to the society’s bulletin, Rodziny, from 1979 to 1996. Access: http://www.pgsa.org/index.htm.
• Polish Genealogy Society of Connecticut and the Northeast. The Polish Genealogy Society of Connecticut and the Northeast links to the tables of contents of its newsletter, “Pathways and Passages,” from 1984 to date. Among the essays are “Death Customs and Funeral Home Records,” “100th Anniversary: Cambria Steel Company—Rolling Mine Disaster,” and “Jewish Registration Districts in Galicia.” The cemetery index allows free searching of 117,676 names in nine states. Access: http://www.pgsctne.org/.
Newspapers
• Dziennik Zwiazkowy. This daily newspaper published in Chicago, covers current events. Access: http://www.polishdailynews.com/chill.php.
• Nowy Dziennik. This authoritative daily newspaper is published in Polish in North America and reports on current events. The button under the masthead “Ksiegarnia” (Bookstore) lists contemporary titles in Polish for sale. Access: http://www.dziennik.com/www/index.htm.
• Polish American Journal. Published in suburban Buffalo, the Polish American Journal has an English-language Web site. The “On-line Library” button links to biographical information on World War II hero Lt. Colonel Matthew Urban and holiday customs, such as the Wigilia dinner at Christmas and Lent and Easter customs. Access: http://www.polamjournal.com/.
• Polish News. The Polish American Journal’s competitor from Chicago, Polish News, calls itself America’s leading bilingual illustrated monthly. Access: http://www.polishnews.com/.
• Warsaw Voice. Poland’s first English-language weekly has been published in Altoona, Pennsylvania, in tabloid format since 1988. Its weekly circulation is 10,500. For visitors to Poland or anyone on campus who wants to surmount the language barrier, this site deserves a visit. Log-in ID and password is required for full-text access. Access: http://www.warsawvoice.pl/.
Notes
1. Thomas Duscak [sic], “The Polish presence in North America,” Choice 32, no. 3 (November 1994): 399–419.
Thomas Duszak is head of the cataloging section at State Library of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg, e-mail: tduszak@state.pa.us
© 2005 Thomas Duszak
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