This weekend the Henry Maier Festival Park in Milwaukee, the City of Festivals, will be hosting Polish Fest (June 14-16, 2019). The UW-Milwaukee Archives and Area Research Center has a significant amount of material by and about the Polish community in Milwaukee. Including the digital collections of Milwaukee Polonia, Milwaukee Neighborhoods, and Polish-Jewish relations in Milwaukee Oral History Project.
The images above come from autograph books that belonged to Mary Andrezjewska. She brought these books with her during her voyages to Poland after World War I as part of the American Relief Administration. It appears that Mary met and befriended many people on these journeys. Most of the inscriptions are in Polish with a few in English. We would be keen to know if anyone recognizes the cartoon work in the first images, a close up of the signature is shown below.
If you are planning on attending PolishFest and spending some extra time in Milwaukee, please stop in! We’d be happy to show you some of our wonderful collections about Milwaukee's Polish history. Including the Mary Andrezjewska Stobba papers, 1919-1973 (Milw SC 73).
