A Sense of Belonging
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These photographs show some of the many ways immigrants banded together to create a new community with others in their ethnic groups.
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This was the logo of the Polish National Alliance. This organization was very active in Johnstown. |
These children are on a picnic sponsored by the PNA in 1929. |
The Polish National Alliance provided many opportunities to its members. This is a play with the members as actors. |
These women worked at the Polish Army Veterans' Home. |
Children of immigrants were able to celebrate holidays from the Old Country. These schoolchildren are celebrating Gen. Pulaski Day in 1929. |
On the other hand, children were the first to "Americanize." These boys are playing American football in front of a coal breaker. |
These boys are playing the All-American game of baseball in a vacant lot in Cambria City in the 1930s. |
The Polish National Alliance (PNA) even had a baseball league where teams from different Polish neighborhoods competed. |
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A PNA team from the 1930s. |
This American football team was from Catholic High School in 1924. |
Slovak Sokol basketball champs, 1929. |
1915 - Calvin's Baseball team |
Some ethnic groups had their own athletic clubs that carried on older sports traditions. Germans had "Turnvereins," which issued diplomas to members. |
Turnverein Hall survived the 1889 Flood. Young German men met inside to work on body-building and gymnastic exercises. |
