Established | 1935 |
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Location | 984 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago Chicago, Illinois 60622 United States |
Director | Malgorzata Kot |
Website | www |
The Polish Museum of America is located in West Town, in what had been the historical Polish Downtown neighborhood of Chicago. It is home to numerous Polish artifacts, artwork, and embroidered folk costumes in its growing collection. Founded in 1935, it is one of the oldest ethnic museums in the United States and a Core Member of the Chicago Cultural Alliance, a consortium of 25 ethnic museums and cultural centers in Chicago.
Each year, the museum organizes several exhibitions, publishes accompanying bilingual catalogs, and conducts a wide range of public programming, frequently in collaboration with other museums, educational institutions, and cultural centers. It promotes the knowledge of Polish history and culture by focusing on Polish and Polish American art through its collection of paintings, sculptures, drawings and lithographs by well-known artists. In addition to exhibits the Polish Museum of America also maintains cultural programs such as lectures, movies and slide presentations, theater performances, meetings with schools and people dedicated to Polish Culture from all over the world.
The museum serves as the focus of official commemorations of Casimir Pulaski Day where various city and state officials congregate to pay tribute to Chicago's Polish Community.
After a fire wiped out the Polish Library and National Museum at Alliance College in 1931, prominent voices in the Polish-American community began agitating for a venue in the United States which could both promote Polish culture and history as well as attest to the Polish presence in North America.
The Polish Museum of America was established in 1935 as the "Museum and Archives of the Polish Roman Catholic Union of America". Miecislaus Haiman was appointed its first curator, archivist and chief librarian. The museum officially opened its doors on January 12 of 1937.
The Polish Museum of America is located within the headquarters of the Polish Roman Catholic Union of America. Designed by John S. Flizikowski, a notable Polish-American architect, construction began on the building in July 1912. Built of pressed brick in the Classical Revival style, the building is augmented by later Art Deco terracotta decorations inspired by Polish folkloric motifs. Listed as possessing potentially significant architectural or historical features, the building was ranked as orange in the city commissioned Chicago Historic Resources Survey, only one step below the most important designation of red.
Some of the museum's most precious holdings include a sleigh that was a gift of the Polish King Stanislaus Leszczynski to his daughter, sculptures by famed cult artist Stanislav Szukalski, a collection of original drawings by Count Thaddeus von Zukotynski, exhibits from the Polish Pavilion at the 1939 New York World's Fair, as well as a bas relief carved in salt from the Wieliczka Salt Mine.
The museum also possesses the painting of "Pulaski at Savannah" by Stanisław Kaczor Batowski, which was exhibited at the Century of Progress Fair in 1933 where it won first place. After the fair closed, the painting went on display at The Art Institute of Chicago where it was unveiled by Eleanor Roosevelt on July 10, 1934, and was on exhibit until its purchase by the Polish Women's Alliance on the museum's behalf in 1939. [1] Another important painting is an extremely rare portrait of Edward Kozłowski, the first Polish priest to be named (1914) a Bishop of Milwaukee, and the second (after Chicago's Paul Peter Rhode) Polish bishop in the history of the Roman Catholic Church in America.
The library and archives at The Polish Museum of America were organized simultaneously with the museum's opening, to meet the research needs of its staff, visiting researchers, students and members of the general public interested in Polish and Polish-American history. The archives of the Polish Museum of America hold numerous paintings, documents, coins and artifacts relating to the history of Poland and Polonia. Its impressive inventories run the gamut from its collection of 730 jubilee books of Polish Roman Catholic parishes to the recruitment records of volunteers for the Polish Army in France. The library's collections are an essential resource for the museum's research, exhibition development and educational programs.
One of the most visited rooms is the Ignace Paderewski Room, which was started around June 1941 through generous donations from his sister Antonina Paderewski Wilkonska. The room also includes items donated from the Buckingham Hotel in New York City where Paderewski spent the last months of his life. The room was officially opened to the public on November 3, 1941. Many believe that the museum and in particular the Paderewski Room is haunted, perhaps by Paderewski himself. The staff recounts a number of incidents related by a number of people, including the cleaning crew who have claimed to experience ghostly-related phenomena late at night. The Ghost Research Society was even brought in by the museum staff to investigate these claims. [2]
According to the Ghost Research Society's Website:
Jerzy (Georg) Daniel Schultz known also as Daniel Schultz the Younger was a prominent painter of the Baroque era, born and active in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. He painted many Polish and Lithuanian nobles, members of the royal family, local Patricians, such as the astronomer Johannes Hevelius; animals, and hunts. His work can be found at the Wawel Castle State Art Collections, the National Museum in Warsaw, the Stockholm National Museum, the Hermitage Museum, and at the Gdańsk National Museum.
Kazimierz Michał Władysław Wiktor Pułaski, anglicized as Casimir Pulaski, was a Polish nobleman, soldier, and military commander who has been called "The Father of American cavalry" or "The Soldier of Liberty".
Polish Americans are Americans who either have total or partial Polish ancestry, or are citizens of the Republic of Poland. There are an estimated 8.81 million self-identified Polish Americans, representing about 2.67% of the U.S. population, according to the 2021 American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Casimir Pulaski Day is a local holiday officially observed in Illinois, on the first Monday of March in memory of Casimir Pulaski, a Revolutionary War cavalry officer born in Poland as Kazimierz Pułaski. He is praised for his contributions to the U.S. military in the American Revolution and known as "the father of the American cavalry".
Ignacy Jan Paderewski was a Polish pianist, composer and statesman who was a spokesman for Polish independence. In 1919, he was the nation's prime minister and foreign minister during which time he signed the Treaty of Versailles, which ended World War I.
Helena Modrzejewska, known professionally as Helena Modjeska, was a Polish-American actress who specialized in Shakespearean and tragic roles.
The Princes Czartoryski Museum – often abbreviated to Czartoryski Museum – is a historic museum in Kraków, Poland, and one of the country's oldest museums. The initial collection was formed in 1796 in Puławy by Princess Izabela Czartoryska. The Museum officially opened in 1878. It is now a division of the National Museum in Kraków.
The Wawel Royal Castle and the Wawel Hill on which it sits constitute the most historically and culturally significant site in Poland. A fortified residency on the Vistula River in Kraków, it was established on the orders of King Casimir III the Great and enlarged over the centuries into a number of structures around an Italian-styled courtyard. It represents nearly all European architectural styles of the Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque periods.
Eugene Von Bruenchenhein (1910–1983) was an American self-taught artist from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Over the course of fifty years, from the 1930s until his death in 1983, Von Bruenchenhein produced an expansive oeuvre of poetry, photography, painting, drawing and sculpture. His body of work includes over one thousand colorful, apocalyptic landscape paintings; hundreds of sculptures made from chicken bones, ceramic and cast cement; pin-up style photos of his wife, Marie; plus dozens of notebooks filled with poetic and scientific musings. Never confined to one particular method or medium, Von Bruenchenhein continually used everyday, discarded objects to visually explore imagined past and future realities.
Jan Styka was a Polish painter noted for producing large historical, battle-piece, and Christian religious panoramas. He was also illustrator and poet. Known also as a great patriotic speaker - his speeches were printed in 1915 under the French title L'ame de la Pologne.
Shelburne Museum is a museum of art, design, and Americana located in Shelburne, Vermont, United States. Over 150,000 works are exhibited in 39 exhibition buildings, 25 of which are historic and were relocated to the museum grounds. It is located on 45 acres (18 ha) near Lake Champlain.
Ukrainian National Museum (UNM) is located in the historical Ukrainian Village neighborhood of Chicago, United States. It is home to a plethora of Ukrainian artifacts, artwork, musical instruments, and embroidered folk costumes among its growing collection.
The International Museum of Surgical Science is a museum located in the Gold Coast neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. It is operated by The International College of Surgeons and features exhibits dealing with various aspects of Eastern and Western medicine. Dr. Max Thorek founded the International College of Surgeons (ICS) in 1935 and originally intended for the museum to highlight the many artifacts and manuscripts the college housed, but artifacts where later added strictly for the museums collection. The museum opened to the public on September 9, 1954. The museum's exhibits are displayed by theme or surgical discipline. Displays include photographs, paintings and drawings, sculpture, medical equipment, skeletons, medical specimens and historic artifacts. The library contains more than 5,000 rare medical texts.
Holy Trinity Church is a historic church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago located at 1118 North Noble Street. It is a prime example of the so-called 'Polish cathedral style' of churches, in both its opulence and grand scale. Along with such monumental religious edifices as St. Mary of the Angels, St. Hedwig's or St. John Cantius, it is one of the many Polish churches that dominate over the Kennedy Expressway in the Pulaski Park neighborhood of Chicago.
The Polish American Museum is located at 16 Belleview Avenue in Port Washington, New York, USA. It was founded on January 20, 1977. It features displays of folk art, costumes, historical artifacts and paintings, as well as bilingual research library with particular focus on achievements of the people of Polish heritage in America.
The Museum of John Paul II Collection in Warsaw, also known as the Porczyński Gallery or Carroll-Porczyński Collection, is a museum dedicated to its painting collection, which is housed in the building of the former stock exchange and Bank of Poland. The collection includes around 400 exhibits, mainly Old Masters and the Impressionists, along with some copies of masterpieces of European painting.
The John Paul II Cathedral Museum is a museum in Kraków, Poland. It is situated on Wawel Hill, between the Vasa Gate and the former seat of the Castle Seminary, in the Cathedral House, which is composed of two 14th-century buildings.
Casimir Pulaski was a Polish nobleman, soldier and military commander who has been called "the father of the American cavalry". He has had hundreds of monuments, memorial plaques, streets, parks and similar objects named after him.
Helena Modjeska Chase Johnson Drea was an artist, writer, poet, musician, photographer, and horsewoman. She had achievements as an illustrator of children's books and oil painter. Several of her books have been included in the Library of Congress collection.
The Jeffersontown Historical Museum is a neighborhood history museum in Jeffersontown, Kentucky. It details the history of Jeffersontown as it progressed from a small rural community with a town square to the city that it is today.