Lesinski family
Lesinski-Rusin Family Collection
1906-1925
MS 131
2 boxes
(1 linear foot)
Special Collections and University Archives, UMass Amherst Libraries
Polish immigrants Jan Lesinski and his wife Weronika (Rusin) settled in Easthampton, Massachusetts, in 1909 and worked in the textile mills there for decades. Married in 1922, the couple raised a son and daughter in their home on Franklin Street. Weronika Lesinski died in Northampton in 1961, her husband following twelve years later.
The Lesinski and Rusin family collection reflect the lives of an average working-class Polish family from Easthampton, Mass., during the early twentieth century. Numerous family photographs document important occasions for the families, such as baptisms, first communions, and weddings, and the photographic postcards and commercial postcards document their relationships, interests, and travel.
EnglishPolish
Nun and two girls at first communion
Born in Jednorozec, Poland, on June 21, 1887, the son of Franciszka and Maryan Lesinski, Jan Lesinski emigrated to the United States in April 1909. After a short stay in Northampton, he relocated southward to the New City district of Easthampton and then to the adjacent mill district south of the Lower Mill Pond, working in the city's textile mills as a weaver or braider and spending many years at United Elastic.
In 1922, Lesinski married Weronika Rusin (1889-1961), the daughter of Ignacy and Anna (Winiarz) Rusin from Tuszyma, a village that was then part of Austro-Hungarian Galicia. Like Jan, Weronika arrived in Easthampton in 1909, although an older sister, Apolonia, had emigrated there three years previously and was already working as an operative in the mills. Apolonia married a textile weaver, Joseph Szewczyk, in 1911, raising a large family.
By the end of the 1920s, Jan and Weronika were living at 45 Franklin Street in the heart of one of Easthampton's Polish American neighborhoods, situated directly across the street from the school for Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish. They occasionally Americanized their names to John and Veronica; Apolonia appears to have gone by the name Victoria. Weronika Lesinski died in Northampton in 1961, aged 71; John died in Williamsburg in November 1973.
The Lesinski and Rusin family collection reflects the lives of an average working-class Polish family from Easthampton, Mass., during the early twentieth century. Although primarily studio portraits, the photographs document important moments in the lives of the Lesinski and Rusin families, from first communions to weddings, and the photographic and commercial postcards document their relationships, interests, and travel. The collection also includes a handful of Polish-language publications, including a Polish-English dictionary, arithmetic book, child's reader, and a copy of the Constitution of the St. Kazimierz benevolent society in Turners Falls.
Most of the postcards in the collection were addressed to Weronika Rusin prior to her marriage, with only a handful from later years. Weronika's most frequent correspondents included her sister Sophie (also spelled Zofia and Sofie) -- who did not emigrate and who wrote both in Polish and German from Bucharest, Krakow, Tarnow, and other locations -- and a friend Ignacy Skarpetowski, who served in Maine in the Coast Artillery Corps during the First World War.
The collection is open for research.
Cite as: Lesinski-Rusin Family Collection (MS 131). Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries.
Gift of Mary Ryan, June 1990.
Family
Immigration and ethnicity
Massachusetts (West)
Photographs
Poland and Polish Americans
Selected images have been digitized are available to view online through Credo.
Processed by I. Eliot Wentworth, July 2017.
Lesinski family
Rusin family
Lesinski, Jan
Lesinski, Weronika Rusin
Rusin, Sophie
Skarpetowski, Ignacy
Polish Americans--Massachusetts--Easthampton--Photographs
World War, 1914-1918--Photographs
Easthampton (Mass.)--Photographs
Photographs
Photographic postcards
Postcards
Photographs
1906-1935
11Communion photographs3 mounted silver prints1910-1915
12Girls receiving instruction from a nun1 toned silver print1915
13Lesinki and Deptula portraits3 gelatin silver prints1915-1935
14Niemic, M. (photographer). Studio portrait of woman1 gelatin silver print1920
15Niedzieta Studio (photographer). Wedding party1 mounted silver print1915
16Unidentified studio portraits3 mounted silver prints1905-1920
17Unidentified wedding portraits4 mounted silver prints1910-1920
18Wanda Szewczyk Cialek and brother John1 mounted silver print1916
19W. J. Cady (photographer). Family portrait, with man in military uniform1 mounted silver print1915
110W. J. Cady (photographer). Wedding portraits4 mounted silver prints1920
Real photo postcards
1910-1925
111Double portraits13 real photo postcards1915-1925
112Double portraits, weddings15 real photo postcards1915-1925
113Group portraits14 real photo postcards1915-1925
114Group portraits8 real photo postcards1915-1925
115Portraits of men8 real photo postcards1915-1925
116Portraits of men9 real photo postcards1910-1925
117Portraits of women15 real photo postcards1915-1925
118Portraits of children3 real photo postcards1915-1925
119World War I9 real photo postcards1916-1918
Commercial postcards
1906-1923
21Birthdays17 items1911-1923
22Christmas38 items1908-1921
23Courting and gag17 items1911-1916
24Easter24 items1911-1921
25Greetings19 items1910-1922
26Miscellaneous13 items1908-1918
27Religious and holidays17 items1912-1916
28Views, European16 items1911-1921
29Views, United States19 items1914-1923
Other material
1908-1923
210Documents (copies): including birth certificate and passport for Jan Lesinski5 items1887-1909
1Cyryla, S. M.Moja pierwsza ksiazeczka. Niles, Ill. : St. Hedwig's Printer1940
1Konstytucja Towarzystwa Sw. Kazimierza Grupa 1625 Z.N.P., Turners Falls, Mass.. Adams, Mass. : White Eagle Printing Co.1931
1Najpraktyczniejszy nauczyciel polsko-angielski. Chicago : Wydane Nakladem1915Ownership inscription on ffep: "Mr. John Lesinski, 1916."
1Szwajkarta, StanislawaArytmetyka. Chicago1914