Abstract Historiography presents a largely institutional record of Polish immigrant life in Canada during the 1920s and 1930s. Based on a photographic album created by Mary Adamowska Panaro, this article presents a story of a Polish immigrant woman's agency in establishing her personal and professional life in Winnipeg. Panaro is both the subject and the curator of the album, and in her careful construction, selection, and safeguarding of the materials, she assumes agency in the form her biography takes and expresses the intention to share her life story. An analytical interpretation of Panaro's photo album establishes an individual- and family-focused counterbalance helping to provide a more well-rounded and representative understanding of how individuals experienced and fit into the larger historical context of interwar Canada.
Magdalena Blackmore (Thu,) studied this question.