Slovenian Women's Union: An Immigrant Institution

Headquartered in Joliet, the Slovenian Women's Union of America is one of the oldest surviving Slovenian immigrant organizations in the United States. It was founded in nineteen twenty-six by Marie Prisland, herself an immigrant, who wanted to give Slovenian women arriving in industrial cities a network of mutual support, insurance, and cultural continuity. The Joliet branch launched two years later with fourteen charter members and grew into one of the largest branches.

The organization publishes a magazine called Zarja, meaning The Dawn, which has appeared continuously for decades. The Slovenian Heritage Museum, founded in nineteen seventy-eight and housed here, preserves photographs, folk costumes, and documents from the great Slovenian migration into the steel and quarry towns of the Midwest.