This is the presentation by Professor Robert Forrant, Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, with his expertise in the history of labor, industrialization, and de-industrialization in New England to the topic of Polish immigration to the area.

This 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. 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.

Recorded at the Community Room of the Holyoke Public Library, on October 26, 2024.