Abstract This article examines the life and career of Dr. Janina Wójcicka Hoskins, a distinguished historian and bibliographer. A graduate of Jagiellonian University and the wife of Franciszek, a lawyer, politician, and representative of the Polish Peasant Party (PSL), Wójcicka fled communist Poland in 1949, eventually arriving in the United States via Sweden. She played a pivotal role in developing and expanding the Polish Collections at the Library of Congress, working in close collaboration with members of the US Congress, American and Polish scholars, as well as institutions such as Polish and American libraries and universities, and leading the Public Law 480 program on behalf of eighteen American libraries. Through these efforts, she helped secure a wealth of valuable materials and made them accessible for public use. Her contributions extend beyond acquisitions. Wójcicka curated several exhibitions at the Library of Congress and delivered educational and promotional talks via Radio Free Europe and Voice of America. More importantly, she is recognized for compiling numerous bibliographies, authoring a guide to Polish reference materials, and actively participating in professional organizations including the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies, the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America, and the American Historical Association. This article draws primarily on the Janina Wójcicka Hoskins Papers, housed in Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University Libraries.
Barbara Krupa (Thu,) studied this question.