Events Calendar

Name: Polish and Eastern European Immigration in the Industrial Era – Holyoke & Western Mass
Start: 2024-10-26T13:00:00-04:00
End: 2024-10-26T14:30:00-04:00
Location: Holyoke Public Library

The Explore Holyoke community events calendar highlights the arts and cultural events throughout the city of Holyoke to help plan your visit. You are invited to submit your event. Events encouraged to be submitted are art openings, dance concerts, open mic events, cultural lectures. Events not allowed on the calendar are, political fundraisers, city meetings, daily specials from restaurants and events outside the city of Holyoke.

Polish and Eastern European Immigration in the Industrial Era – Holyoke & Western Mass

October 26, 2024 @ 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, people from Poland and other Eastern European countries immigrated to Western Massachusetts in significant numbers. Many in the upper Pioneer Valley farmed the rich soils in Franklin and Hampshire Counties; others came to work in the mills and factories in Holyoke and Chicopee.

Join us as Robert Forrant, Distinguished University Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, brings his expertise in the history of labor, industrialization, and de-industrialization in New England to the topic of Polish immigration to the area. The talk also explores the hostility encountered by early generations of Polish immigrants to the U.S. and the often difficult conditions of life and work in their new home.

This event takes place in the Holyoke Public Library Community Room and is free and open to the public. Sponsored by the Holyoke History Room.