Born in Boston on June 3, 1933, Mary Louise (Butler) married Chester S. Panus (1929-1993) in 1951, and lived for many years in the Plymouth County town of Abington. Mary Lou had a long interest in documenting Polish culture in Massachusetts, with a particular focus on photographing Polish Catholic churches. She died after a brief illness on May 22, 2012, and is buried in Rockland, Mass.
An eclectic collector of materials relating to Polish American life in Massachusetts, Panus left an extensive series of snapshots of most, but not all of the state's Polish churches. The collection also includes a doll dressed as a nun.
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Born in Boston on June 3, 1933, Mary Louise (Butler) was the wife of Chester S. Panus (1929-1993) and lived for many years in the Plymouth County town of Abington. Panus had a long interest in documenting Polish culture in Massachusetts, with a particular focus on Polish Catholic churches. She died after a brief illness on May 22, 2012, and is buried in Rockland, Mass.
An eclectic collector of materials relating to Polish American life in Massachusetts, Panus left an extensive series of snapshots of most, but not all of the state's Polish churches. The collection also includes a doll dressed as a nun.
Although she never completed her project, Panus hoped to photograph all Polish churches in Massachusetts. In most cases, each church is represented by both exterior and interior shots, often several. The images are arranged by church name.
The collection is open for research.
Gift of Mary Lou Panus, 1995.
Processed by I. Eliot Wentworth, Feb. 2019.
Cite as: Mary Louise Panus Collection (MS 378). Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries.
