Polish Museum of America

Category: Museum

The Polish Museum of America, founded in 1935, is one of the oldest and largest ethnic museums in the United States of America. Located in the heart of the first Polish neighborhood in Chicago, it promotes the knowledge of Polish history and culture, especially promulgates Polish and Polish American art in its paintings, sculptures, drawings and lithographs by well-known artists. It offers numerous exhibits in addition to cultural programs such as lectures, concerts, movie and slide presentations, theatre performances, meetings with scholars, artists, and people dedicated to Polish culture from all over the world.

With its 60,000 volumes, 250 periodicals, collections of Polish music records and cassettes, the Museum Library ranks as one of the best, outside of Poland. The archives preserve documents pertaining to Polish and Polish American history. Many scholars from varied parts of the country come here to complete their research and many students receive their first introduction to knowledge of Polish history and culture through the Polish Museum archives.

The Polish Museum of America has an interesting gift shop and offers many imported items from Poland, including Polish dolls, Amber jewelry, Designs from wood shavings and hand-carved wooden items.