In 1943 a group of Polish academics who found refuge in Montreal, together with a number of their Canadian colleagues and with the enthusiastic support of the eminent Polish historian Professor Oskar Halecki, then at Columbia University, founded the Canadian Section of the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences in America. Subsequently the Canadian Section became the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences in Canada with branches in Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver. The founders saw two major goals for the new institution: to preserve cultural and intellectual values threatened in Poland by the war and its geopolitical consequences and to acquaint Canadians with Polish history and culture. With the defeat of the communist regime, Poland regained its independence. Its culture is thriving and is no longer endangered from outside. The Institute is thus able to focus its activities on its tasks of promoting Polish culture in Canada, reinforcing Polish-Canadian friendship and serving the cultural needs of the Polish-Canadian communities. 

From its inception, the Polish Institute of Arts ans Sciences in Canada has enjoyed the support of succesive Principals of McGill University, who all have served as its Honorary Presidents, and by a decision of the University Board of Governors, the Institute has been located on McGill University campus. 

The Polish Library at McGill University can be considered as the most important and enduring achievement of the Institute. In 1943 it consisted of a small collection of books for the use by its members. By the end of World War II, and particularily since 1950, it changed its character developing into a lending library serving all interested scholars and students, as well as the Polish community at large. 

The Polish Library collection of approximately 45,000 items consists primarily of works on literature, history, social studies, fine arts and religion. The majority of the books are in Polish, but both English and French publications on Polish subjects or by Polish authors are included. Over 10,000 of the books, considered of academic interest, are included in the McGill University MUSE on-line catalogue. The rest represents translations into Polish from other languages and material from our popular lending library. 

The Polish Library also contains several hundred titles of periodicals and a valuable collection of old maps and graphics. 

Among the more than 400 graphics in the possession of the Library, accumulated over decades from donations by many individuals, of special interest and importance is a collection of 113 prints representing Polish graphic art created during the period between the two World Wars. It contains representative examples of the work of 42 well known Polish graphic artists of the period, in a variety of media, with woodcuts predominating. The woodcuts of Wladyslaw Skoczylas deserve special attention since he is credited with creating with this medium a distinct segment of Polish visual art. Inspired to some extent by folk art themes, the woodcuts of Skoczylas stimulated the creation of a very vibrant milieu for a group of graphic artists, recruited mainly from among his friends and students, who in 1925 formed the Stwarzyszenie Artyst0w Grafiki "Ryt" (Association of Graphic Artists "Ryt'~. This group dominated the Polish graphic scene for many years bringing the art of woodcutting to highest levels of perfection and artistic creativity. Among the members of "Ryt" we find such artists as Edmund Bartlomiejczyk, Stanislaw Ostoja-Chrostowski, Wiktorla Gorynska, Maria Ruzucka-Gabryiel, Konstanty Maria Sopocko and Stefan Mrozewski, the latter well known and respected not only in Poland but also beyond its borders. All are represented in the Polish Library collection. 

It should be mentioned that two works by Aleksander Rak in the collection are unique in so far as the "Dzwonnik" (Bell ringer) has till now been considered in various records as having been lost and "Gra w karty" (Card Game) is not mentioned in any bibliography of Polish graphics.