American Lithuanian Cultural Archives
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American Lithuanian Cultural Archives
American Lithuanian Cultural Archives or ALKA ( lt, Amerikos lietuvių kultūros archyvai) is located at 37 Mary Crest Drive in Putnam, Connecticut next to the convent of the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is dedicated to the preservation of Lithuanian culture in the United States. ALKA comprises a museum, a library and the archives. It is maintained by the Lithuanian Catholic Academy of Science. History The history of ALKA is traced to 1922 when Catholic priest Pranciškus Mykolas Juras (Francis M. Juras) began collecting Lithuanian books and periodicals at his parish in Lawrence, Massachusetts. He also collected Lithuanian art and crafts, including samples of weaving and knitting, national folk costumes, jewelry, wood carvings, and various implements and utensils. As the collection grew, it moved to the offices of the newspaper ''Darbininkas'' in South Boston in 1935. ALKA was officially established in 1941. When the newspaper moved to Brookl ...
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Putnam, Connecticut
Putnam is a town in Windham County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 9,224 at the 2020 census. History Putnam, originally known as Aspinock, then part of Killingly, is a New England mill town incorporated in 1855. Created from sections of Killingly, Pomfret, and Thompson, the town was named in honor of Revolutionary War General Israel Putnam. Putnam was a key contributor in providing clothing and other goods to the Civil War soldiers. There were numerous mills and a train ran through the town, providing transportation for the goods being produced. On August 19, 1955, Putnam was devastated by floods from torrential downpours caused by two hurricanes, which hit Connecticut within the span of a week. Hurricane Connie affected Connecticut on August 13, dropping between four and six inches (152 mm) of rain across the state. Hurricane Diane soaked the state with of rain on August 18–19. The result was flooding in many of the state's rivers, including the Quine ...
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Kazys Varnelis (artist)
Kazys Varnelis (February 25, 1917 in Alsėdžiai – October 29, 2010 in Vilnius) was an abstract painter from Lithuania. He lived and worked in the United States of America for fifty years, between 1949 and 1998. His distinctive painting style demonstrated optical and three-dimensional illusions based on geometric abstractions and minimal forms. His style combined elements of constructivism, minimalism, and op art. His work is sometimes described as a modernist interpretation of Lithuanian folk art and is owned by Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, Currier Museum of Art, and other museums. Varnelis was also an avid collector of antiques and bibliophile – his collection is now housed at the Kazys Varnelis House–Museum in Vilnius. His son, also named Kazys Varnelis is a noted architect, art historian, and theorist. Early career Born in Alsėdžiai in the Samogitia region to a father who was a religious wood sculptor and painter, Varnelis graduated ...
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Non-profit Organizations Based In Connecticut
A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in contrast with an entity that operates as a business aiming to generate a profit for its owners. A nonprofit is subject to the non-distribution constraint: any revenues that exceed expenses must be committed to the organization's purpose, not taken by private parties. An array of organizations are nonprofit, including some political organizations, schools, business associations, churches, social clubs, and consumer cooperatives. Nonprofit entities may seek approval from governments to be tax-exempt, and some may also qualify to receive tax-deductible contributions, but an entity may incorporate as a nonprofit entity without securing tax-exempt status. Key aspects of nonprofits are accountability, trustworthiness, honesty, and openness to eve ...
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Archives In The United States
An archive is an accumulation of historical records or materials – in any medium – or the physical facility in which they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or organization's lifetime, and are kept to show the function of that person or organization. Professional archivists and historians generally understand archives to be records that have been naturally and necessarily generated as a product of regular legal, commercial, administrative, or social activities. They have been metaphorically defined as "the secretions of an organism", and are distinguished from documents that have been consciously written or created to communicate a particular message to posterity. In general, archives consist of records that have been selected for permanent or long-term preservation on grounds of their enduring cultural, historical, or evidentiary value. Archival records are normally unpublished and almost alway ...
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Ateitis
The Lithuanian Catholic Federation "Ateitis" (literally: ''future'') is a youth organization in Lithuania uniting Catholic-minded schoolchildren, university students, and alumni. Ateitis is a member of the umbrella of Catholic youth organizations Fimcap. Members of the Ateitis Federation are known as ateitininkai. Name and aims The aim of Ateitis is the integral development of young people enabling them to be effective apostles of Christ and creative agents capable of changing society according to Christian values. For historical reasons another central aim is to preserve the national heritage and culture of Lithuania. The five principles of Ateitis are: Catholicism, community spirit, social responsibility, education and patriotism. The motto of Ateitis is ''To Renew All Things in Christ'' ( la, Omnia Instaurare in Christo, lt, Atkurti Viską Kristuje). History Ateitis was founded on Feb. 19, 1910 as a secret student organization in Kaunas, Lithuania, then part of the Russian ...
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Knights Of Lithuania
The Knights of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos vyčiai) is a Lithuanian cultural organization in the United States, established in 1913 as the Lithuanian Falcons in an effort to develop conservative and patriotic values in Lithuanian-American youth. Changing its name to the current form after just one year, the Knights of Lithuania organization grew to peak in size and influence in the mid-1920s, when its membership approached 5,000 and its local councils exceeded 100. Decline soon followed, however, due to declining use of the Lithuanian language and loss of national consciousness among the American-born youth. Organization size was further impacted by the emergence of the Catholic Youth Organization in 1932. Open to both women and men from its first years, as immigration from Lithuania halted and its membership grew older, the age requirements of the group's early days were dropped. Despite its numerical decline and evolution into an English-speaking organization, the Knights of Lithuan ...
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Supreme Committee For The Liberation Of Lithuania
The Supreme Committee for the Liberation of Lithuania or VLIK ( lt, Vyriausiasis Lietuvos išlaisvinimo komitetas) was an organization seeking independence of Lithuania. It was established on November 25, 1943, during the Nazi occupation. After World War II it moved abroad and continued its operations in Germany and the United States. VLIK claimed to be the legal representative of the Lithuanian parliament and government, but did not enjoy international recognition. It was dissolved in 1990 when Lithuania re-established its independence. In Lithuania When Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, Lithuanians greeted Germans as "liberators" from the oppressive Soviet regime. However, soon the attitude changed and various resistance movements began to form at the end of 1941 – beginning of 1942. During 1942 and 1943 these movements began consolidating into the pro-Catholic Nation's Council ( lt, Tautos taryba) and Supreme Committee of the Lithuanians ( lt, Vyriausiasis ...
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Jeronimas Kačinskas
Jeronimas Kačinskas (or Kacinskas; 17 April 1907 – 15 September 2005However, Social Security Death Index lists 12 June 2003 as date of death) was a Lithuanian-born American composer. Kačinskas was born in Viduklė, Kovno Governorate, Russian Empire, to the family of a church organist. He studied music at the National Conservatory of Lithuania in Klaipėda and at the Prague Conservatory. He later taught at the State Conservatory in Vilnius. His ''Nonet'' was premiered in London in 1938, and he married Elena Šlevaitė in 1941. In 1944, they escaped from Lithuania and travelled through Poland into Germany, where they were finally rescued by American troops. In 1949, they arrived in the United States, and Kačinskas became a church organist and choirmaster in Boston, Massachusetts. From 1967 to 1986, he taught at Berklee College of Music. In 1991 he was awarded Lithuanian National Prize. Works ;Opera * ''Juodas laivas'' (Black Ship) (1975); libretto by Algirdas Landsbergi ...
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Petras Kalpokas
Petras Kalpokas (31 March 1880 in Miškinė – 5 December 1945) was a Lithuanian artist and professor. Biography Kalpokas was born on 31 March 1880 in the village of Miškinė, near Kvetkai, in the Kovno Governorate of the Russian Empire (in the Biržai district of present-day Lithuania). From 1890 to 1895 he attended the Gymnasium of Jelgava, Latvia. He was expelled when he drew a teacher's cartoon on a stove. In 1898 Kalpokas moved to Odessa where he spent two years as an art student. In 1890 (?) he received a bronze medal for his still life painting. In 1892 the first exhibition of Kalpokas' drawings was organized in Riga. Kalpokas continued his studies of arts in Munich. He studied under guidance of Anton Ažbe and Wilhelm von Debschitz. Kalpokas attended Heimann Academy and Munich University. Between 1909 and 1920 Kalpokas traveled around Europe: Switzerland, Hungary, Italy. In 1914 he attempted to organize a large one-man exhibition in Germany, but more than ...
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Mstislav Dobuzhinsky
Mstislav Valerianovich Dobuzhinsky or Dobujinsky ( lt, Mstislavas Dobužinskis, August 14, 1875, Novgorod – November 20, 1957, New York City) was a Russian and Lithuanian artist noted for his cityscapes conveying the explosive growth and decay of the early twentieth-century city. Of noble Lithuanian extraction, Dobuzhinsky was born on August 14, 1875 in Novgorod into the family of an army officer. From 1885 to 1887, he attended the Drawing School of the Society for the Promotion of the Artists. Between 1895 and 1899, he read Law at the University of St. Petersburg, simultaneously studying in private studios. After graduating from the University, he was trained from 1899 to 1901 by Anton Ažbe in Munich and Simon Hollósy in Nagybánya (Austria-Hungary). In Munich, he came to be influenced by the Jugendstil. On his return to Russia, he joined the Mir Iskusstva, an artistic circle which idealized the 18th century as the "age of elegance". Dobuzhinsky was distinguished from other ...
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1939 New York World's Fair
The 1939–40 New York World's Fair was a world's fair held at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, New York, United States. It was the second-most expensive American world's fair of all time, exceeded only by St. Louis's Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904. Many countries around the world participated in it, and over 44 million people attended its exhibits in two seasons. It was the first exposition to be based on the future, with an opening slogan of "Dawn of a New Day", and it allowed all visitors to take a look at "the world of tomorrow". When World War II began four months into the 1939 World's Fair, many exhibits were affected, especially those on display in the pavilions of countries under Axis occupation. After the close of the fair in 1940, many exhibits were demolished or removed, though some buildings were retained for the 1964–1965 New York World's Fair, held at the same site. Planning In 1935, at the height of the Great Depression, a group of New Yo ...
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Adomas Varnas
Adomas Varnas (January 1, 1879 in Joniškis, Lithuania – July 19, 1979 in Chicago, United States) was a prominent Lithuanian painter, photographer A photographer (the Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who makes photographs. Duties and types of photographers As in other ..., collector, philanthropist, and educator. Author of the world first album of ethnographical photography ''Lithuanian Crosses'' (''Lietuvos kryžiai'', 2 volumes, 1926, Kaunas) about the Lithuanian cross crafting."An Enigma of One Portrait and One Friendship"
, He was husband of the educator Marija Kurai ...
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