The University of Massachusetts Amherst
Robert S. Cox Special Collections & University Archives Research Center
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Collecting area: Poland & Polish Americans

Bajgier Family

Bajgier Family Papers

1925-1986
2 boxes 0.5 linear feet
Call no.: MS 400
Depiction of Joseph and Martha Bajgier at Bell Market, Chicopee, 1937
Joseph and Martha Bajgier at Bell Market, Chicopee, 1937

On March 13, 1903, Joseph Michael Bajgier was born in Odrzykon, Poland, the youngest of three sons in a farming family. Schooled only through the third grade, Joseph served as a young man in the First Air Division of the Polish Army before following his older brother in emigrating to the United States in 1927. Settling in Chicopee, Mass., with its large and active Polish community, Bajgier began work as a slaughterer of pigs for a meat processing company, but within a few years, he had saved enough money to purchase a small grocery store in Longmeadow. In about 1935, he returned to Chicopee, purchasing a grocery and deli, Bell Market, that his family ran for 36 years. Bajgier was deeply involved in the local Polish community as a member of the Polish National Alliance, the Holy Name Society of St. Stanislaus Parish, and an organization of Polish veterans in exile (Stowarzyszenie Polskich Kombatantow). He and his wife Martha (Misiaszek) had two sons, Casimir and Edward

The Bajgier collection documents the lives of a Polish family in Chicopee, Mass., from the time of immigration through the 1970s. The core of the collection surrounds the life of Joseph Bajgier, and includes a number of documents and a diary from the time of his emigration in 1927, a fascinating series of letters from relatives in Turaszowka, Poland before and after the Second World War, and several photographs of the family and their business in Chicopee.

Subjects

Chicopee (Mass.)--Social life and customsPolish Americans--MassachusettsWorld War, 1939-1945

Contributors

Bajgier, Joseph M

Types of material

Photographs
Bernhard, Michael H.

Michael H. Bernhard Solidarity Collection

ca.1975-1989
3 boxes 4.5 linear feet
Call no.: MS 575

A member of the Department of Political Science at Penn State University, Michael Bernhard specializes in the comparative history of institutional change in East Central Europe and the political economy of democratic survival and breakdown. Since receiving his doctorate from Columbia University in 1988, Bernhard has written extensively on various aspects of the democratic transition in Poland and East Germany.

The Bernhard Collection contains photocopies and some original materials of underground publications by the Solidarity Movement in Poland, most of which were crudely published and illegally distributed. The collection also includes a series of posters for Solidarity candidates during the first post-Communist election.

Language(s): Polish

Subjects

NSZZ "Solidarność" (Labor organization)Poland--History--1945-Underground press publications--Poland

Contributors

Bernhard, Michael H
Borkowski, Edward A.

Edward A. Borkowski Autobiography

ca.1980
1 folder 0.1 linear feet
Call no.: MS 124 bd

124-page handwritten autobiographical account written in Polish by 100 year-old Edward A. Borkowski of Turner Falls, Massachusetts.

Subjects

Polish Americans--Massachusetts--Turners FallsTurners Falls (Mass.)--Social conditions

Contributors

Borkowski, Edward A

Types of material

Autobiographies
Buczko, Thaddeus

Thaddeus Buczko Photographs

ca.1960-1980
1 box 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 299

Former Massachusetts legislator, state auditor, and justice in the Essex Court, active in the Boston, Massachusetts-area Polish community. Fifty-five photographs including portraits of Judge Buczko with Pope John Paul II, Robert and Edward Kennedy, Carl Yastrzemski, Francis Sargent, Hubert Humphrey, and various Massachusetts politicians and friends.

Gift of John Buczko, 1990

Subjects

Humphrey, Hubert H. (Hubert Horatio), 1911-1978John Paul II, Pope, 1920-Kennedy, Edward Moore, 1932-Kennedy, Robert F., 1925-1968Polish Americans--MassachusettsSargent, FrancisYastrzemski, Carl

Contributors

Buczko, Thaddeus

Types of material

Photographs
Czaja, Mrs. Joseph

Josephine Czaja Papers

1936-1987
1 box 0.5 linear feet
Call no.: MS 189

Born in Poland, Josephine Latosinski emigrated with her parents to the United States as an infant in 1905. After study at the Booth and Bayliss Commercial College in Waterbury, Connecticut, she worked briefly as a secretary for a Waterbury firm, however in 1926, she married an electrical engineer, Joseph Czaja, and moved to Springfield, Mass. An active member of the Polish community and a talented musician, Czaja sang in the St. Cecilia Choir of Our Lady of the Rosary Church, was an officer in the church’s Ladies Guild, and she became a key member of the local Polish Women’s Club.

The collection consists of photocopies of news clippings, probably compiled into scrapbooks by Josephine Czaja, depicting her activities, her family, the Polish community of Springfield more generally, particularly the Polish Women’s Club.

Language(s): English`Polish

Subjects

Polish Americans--Massachusetts--SpringfieldPolish Women's ClubSpringfield (Mass.)--Social conditions

Types of material

News clippings
Dobrowski, Elaine H.

Elaine H. Dobrowski Collection

ca.1935-1995
1 box 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 376
Depiction of Ogniko Polek (Polish Women's Club) at Blinstrub's Village nightclub, 1950
Ogniko Polek (Polish Women's Club) at Blinstrub's Village nightclub, 1950

Deeply involved in the Polish community in Boston, Elaine (Proborszcz) Dobrowski (1923-2009) was the wife of attorney Francis R. Dobrowksi and mother of two children. She was a resident of Dorchester and Milton, Mass., and a long-time member of Our Lady of Czestochowa Church in South Boston.

Compiled by Elaine Dobrowski, this collection of photographs, printed materials, and news clippings documents the Polish community in Boston from the 1930s through the 1990s. The collection includes photographs of the Kosciusko Monument in the Boston Public Gardens, a children’s dance festival, and a Polish Women’s circle outing at Blinstrub’s Village as well as images of parades, receptions, and conventions.

Gift of Elain H. Dobrowski, Jan. 1995.
Language(s): pol

Subjects

Boston (Mass.)--Social life and customsPolish Americans--Massachusetts

Types of material

Photographs
International Brotherhood of Paper Makers. Eagle Lodge

International Brotherhood of Paper Makers Local 1 (Eagle Lodge : Holyoke, Mass.) Records

1901-1978
1 box 0.5 linear feet
Call no.: MS 081

First organized as Eagle Lodge in Holyoke, Massachusetts, the United Brotherhood of Paper Makers was granted a charter by the AFL in May 1883. Almost as soon as the union was established, however, it faced a serious struggle for power from within. Hoping to maintain their higher economic and social status, the machine tenders ultimately organized their own union, and the two remained separate for a number of years until they finally merged in 1902 as the International Brotherhood of Paper Makers.

The surviving records of the Eagle Lodge, Local 1 of the International Brotherhood of Paper Makers, include by-laws, minutes, correspondence, some contracts, a ledger, and three histories of the local and the early days of the union.

Gift of Bill Casamo, October 1985 (1985-094)

Subjects

Labor unions--MassachusettsPaper industry workers--Labor unions--MassachusettsPaper industry workers--Massachusetts--Holyoke

Contributors

United Paperworkers International Union

Types of material

Minutes (Administrative records)
Jakubowska-Schlatner, Basia

Basia Jakubowska-Schlatner Solidarity (Solidarnosc) Collection

1979-1989
26 boxes 38.5 linear feet
Call no.: MS 723

Temporarily stored offsite; contact SCUA to request materials from this collection.

As a university student in Warsaw, Poland, in January 1977, Barbara Jakubowska-Schlatner made the decision to join the democratic resistance to the Communist regime. For more than twelve years, she was an active member of the Solidarity (Solidarnosc) movement, organizing opposition to state oppression, producing and distributing underground literature, and working with the pirate broadcasts of Solidarity radio.

Recognizing the importance of the underground press to the Solidarity movement, Jakubowska-Schlatner went to extraordinary lengths to collect and preserve their publications. At various times, the collection was kept in the basement of her mother’s house, spread around among a series of safe locations, and sometimes even secreted in small caches in back lots. The collection of over 1,500 titles is centered on the underground press in Warsaw, but includes titles published in Wroclaw, Gdansk, Krakow, and other cities. These include a startling array of publications, from fliers, handbills, and ephemera to translations of foreign literature, newspapers and periodicals, a science fiction magazine, and instructions on how to run a small press.

Gift of Barbara Jakubowska, May 2007
Language(s): Polish

Subjects

NSZZ "Solidarność" (Labor organization)Poland--History--1945-Underground press publications--Poland
Kislo, Michael Z., 1896-1978

Michael Z. Kislo Notebooks

1954-1974
3 boxes 1.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 246

After emigrating from Dzieciekowo, Poland, Michael Kislo found work in a Northampton basket shop and later as a machinist at International Silver Company. He was a resident of Florence, Mass.

The Kislo collection contains nine volumes of Kislo’s writing (mostly in Polish and thematically religious, patriotic, personal, and autobiographical) and artwork (drawings and paintings with religious allusions, Polish costumes, weapons, imaginary animals and fanciful landscapes).

Acquired from Susan Kislo via Stanley Radosh, 1989
Language(s): Polish

Subjects

Art, Polish--Massachusetts--20th centuryFlorence (Mass.)--BiographyImmigrants--Massachusetts--FlorencePolish American artists--Massachusetts--FlorencePolish Americans--Massachusetts--FlorenceUnited States. Federal Bureau of Investigation

Contributors

Kislo, Michael Z., 1896-1978

Types of material

DiariesNotebooksWatercolors (Paintings)
Kopiecki, Sophie D. Zmijewski

Sophie D. Zmijewski Kopiecki Papers

ca. 1950-1990
8 boxes 12 linear feet
Call no.: MS 553

An active member of a number of women’s Polish American clubs in Massachusetts, including the Massachusetts Federation of Polish Women’s Clubs, Sophie Kopiecki was a schoolteacher and mother in the eastern part of the state. Documenting her contributions to the various clubs of which she was a member as well as her activities as a teacher, this collection includes publications, programs, memorabilia, and student assignments.

Gift of Barbara Kopiecki Stathis, Apr. 2008

Subjects

Polish American friendly societies--MassachusettsPolish Americans--Ethnic identity--History--20th centuryPolish Americans--Massachusetts

Contributors

Kopiecki, Sophie D. Zmijewski