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WELCOME
HISTORY
ORGANIZATION
CONTACT US
BECOME A MEMBER
DONATION/PAYMENT
SPONSORS
WHO WAS WHO
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Please, print or pay your membership fee by Internet:
Dear Sir/Madam
Knowing your interest in Polish culture I am encouraged to ask you to join the Pilsudski Institute of America as a member.
The Pilsudski Institute was founded in New York in 1943 by a group of prominent Americans of Polish descent, together with well known leaders of Polish wartime emigration.
The Institute would continue the work of its predecessor, founded in 1923 in Warsaw and known as the Pilsudski Institute for Research in the Modern History of Poland.
The Institute collects and preserves historical documents and other artifacts of Polish culture. Its archives are 200 meters long, and contain
over a million documents as well as photographs, the press, medals, decorations and stamps. Its history library of 22,000 titles and over 240 paintings and drawings by prominent Polish artists, like Matejko, Brandt, Chelmonski, Wyspianski, Czermanski and many others, were all donated to the Institute by its members
and represent a major museum of Polish history and culture.
Priceless archives were saved from burning Warsaw in September 1939, including the personal archives of Jozef Pilsudski as Head of State (1918-1921) and documents related to the Silesian Uprisings (1919-1922) as well as documents deposited by
Ambassadors Jozef Lipski, Juliusz Lukaszewicz and General Kazimierz Sosnkowski. The collections of archives and other collections make the Institute a unique treasure trove of Polish culture in America where anyone in search of knowledge about Poland and Central Europe may find the answer to their quest.
The
major aim of the Institute is to continue to collect and preserve historical documents to make them available to students, scholars and the general public. Access to our documents has been greatly facilitated by the resources of the Internet. We want to make it possible to find information on our ancestors who served
in the Polish Legions or fought in the Silesian Uprisings. In the first phase of this work we have made available on our web site (www.pilsudski.org) lists of contents of our archival collections. In the next phase we plan to scan, index and facilitate the retrieval of information in all our original documents and
other materials.
The Institute is an independent organization, beholden to no one and subsidized by no government, in America or Poland. Our funds come from membership dues, donations, grants by institutions and personal bequests. This is why we need new members who care about Poland and its history.
As
a member of the Institute you will help to secure for future generations our national heritage and history, and take part in the unique undertaking of making Polish archival collections available through the Internet. Every member will be kept informed of the Institute’s activities, invited to its events,
lectures and exhibits, by means of a quarterly e-mails bulletin (optional), and a printed annual catalog. Now is the best and the most important time to join the Institute.
Jacek Galazka
President
Please, print or pay your membership fee by Internet:
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