Henryk Archacki, 1907-1988, a Polish immigrant, journalist, and well-known graphic artist, drew weekly cartoons for Polish-language newspapers for over 20 years. With his wife, he researched current events, sports, literature, and historical curiosities, and presented them in these factoid cartoons, with a strong flavor of pride in being Polish. This syndicated series was entitled "Czy wiecie, ze..." ("Do you know that...").
In the mid-20th century, Polish Americans were simultaneously assimilating and realizing a new pride in their heritage, as Poland arose after World War I from over a century of partition. An unknown Buffalo subscriber clipped the cartoons in this collection from Buffalo's Dziennik dla Wszystkich (Everybody's Daily) from 1931 to 1952 and saved them in scrapbooks; the scrapbooks were recently acquired by Steven Piwowar and donated to UB's Polish Collection. Mixing serious and light content, Archacki both enlightened and entertained his beloved Polonia.
