Pansirna opened a photo studio near 18th and Halsted Streets in 1914 in the neighborhood now known as Pilsen. Pansirna (1888-1970) was not merely a studio photographer, but he also was an avid chronicler of community-centered events \u2013 picnics, funerals, and the annual carnival at the Providence of God Lithuanian Parish. The greater part of Pansirna\u2019s collection \u2013 some 1500 negatives and photographs \u2013 is now housed at Purdue University Galleries. They are mostly studio portraits and family pictures. There are also photos of rites of passage: First Communions, weddings, and group photographs of school children and sports teams.<\/p>\n
![\"Untitled_Clipping_011416_125308_PM\"](\"http:\/\/draugas.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Untitled_Clipping_011416_125308_PM.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2019Look, we have arrived!\u201d<\/p>\n
As a social observer, Pansirna successfully emulated Norman Rockwell\u2019s approach in recording Chicago life through his photographs. There are interior shots of grocery stores, taverns, barber shops, and unique views of church processions and street vendors in the 18th Street neighborhood. Then there are enlistment photos of soldiers in uniform. Several photographs demonstrate the social mobility that Lithuanians had attained at that time: the family proudly poses in front of a newly constructed house, which they have acquired. Pansirna\u2019s signature on a photograph was indicative of attaining a higher status. Families proudly displayed these photos on their china cabinets or hung them on their living room walls.<\/p>\n Most intriguing are the funeral photographs. They typically showed an open casket with the bereaved family members standing by. The photographs speak volumes about Lithuanian-American funeral traditions. The deceased\u2019s name and the date of the funeral etched on the print is an invaluable resourcefor Lithuanian genealogy research.<\/p>\n Pansirna\u2019s name was little known in the social circles of post World War II Lithuanian immigrants. This can in part be attributed to the closure of his studio circa 1953. After he retired, Pansirna receded into obscurity, although he continued to organize select samples of his work into an archive.<\/p>\n The exhibit at Purdue is curated by Rosanne Altstatt and Michel Hathaway and is supported with research conducted by the students in the Honors College class \u201cPhotography and Cultural Value.\u201d The Purdue students examined what is seen in the Pansirna photographs, and some of their comments are posted next to them. In the photo of two men ( possibly brothers?) in the woods, both are wearing black arm bands, signifying mourning. One is holding an opened prayer book. Can we unlock the secret of whom it is that they are mourning?<\/p>\n In another photograph, a child sitting on a bench is holding a pennant which reads \u201cDraugyst\u0117s Palaimintos Lietuvos\u201d and is dated 1906 (Society of Blessed Lithuania, c. 1906). The student\u2019s comments note that the child\u2019s shoes are Edwardian style, but he most likely was mistaken by identifying it as dating from 1906. Looking up Aleksas Ambrose\u2019s book History of Chicago\u2019s Lithuanians, one finds that this charitable organization was organized in 1906, before Pansirna had even settled in Chicago. In 1920 the Society of Blessed Lithuania participated in a demonstration protesting the Polish occupation of Vilnius, and raised funds to aid Lithuanians in Vilnius. The photograph was most likely taken at a picnic in the 1920\u2019s.<\/p>\n I first learned of Pansirna from an article by Ed Lapinskas in \u201cProt\u0117viai,\u201d a bulletin published in 2007 by the Lithuanian Global Genealogical Society. Ed Lapinskas, Pansirna\u2019s nephew, remembers his uncle as having a reserved personality, one who avoided carousing and parties and generally maintained a healthy lifestyle.<\/p>\n Charles (Karolis) Pansirna was born in Betygala, Lithuania. He immigrated to the United States around 1907. Working in the coal mines of Pennsylvania, he saved enough money to move in 1915 to Chicago. Having the rare gift of talent and through hard work, he acquired photographic skills on his own. Pansirna died in 1970, and is buried together with his wife Sophia in St. Casimir\u2019s Lithuanian Cemetery in Chicago.<\/p>\n By\u00a0GEDIMINAS INDREIKA. The exhibit at Purdue University\u2019s Robert L. Ringel GalleryWhat Will You Remember When I\u2019m Gone (October 27 to December 6, 2014) offers a rare glimpse into the work of Charles Pansirna, a distinguished Lithuanian-American photographer. The exhibit also displays contemporary photographs by Owen Mundy, though primarily military portraits as a complement and counterpoint …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1657,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[79,95],"class_list":["post-1654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-history-before-1900","tag-draugas-news","tag-indreika-g"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.draugas.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.draugas.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.draugas.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.draugas.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.draugas.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.draugas.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.draugas.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.draugas.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.draugas.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.draugas.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Pansirna](\"http:\/\/draugas.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Untitled_Clipping_011416_125415_PM.jpg\")
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A scholarly study of Pansirna\u2019s photographs of Lithuanian-Americans is long overdue. Many of the funeral images that identify the person portrayed can be cross-referenced with the records maintained at Chicago\u2019s St. Casimir Lithuanian Cemetery. Pansirna\u2019s photographs are deposited at various other institutions and in private collections as well. They are not properly catalogued. The M.K. \u010ciurlionis National Art Museum in Kaunas holds at least a dozen of Pansirna\u2019s originals. Many aspects of our hidden history are still waiting to be studied and their secrets discovered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"