Before the First World War, approximately 2-2.5 million Poles settled in the United States of America, emigrants from all corners of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. One of the largest concentrations of Polish emigration in the USA was in Chicago. Among other things, the city became a centre of Polish social, cultural and religious life, the seat of several Polish parishes.

In 2018. The Polonica Institute commissioned Norbert Piwowarczyk to take 40 original photographs depicting churches built by the Polish emigrant community in the United States of America.

In the large cities of the northern part of the USA, there were large concentrations of Polish immigrants from the late 19th century, who built monumental, representative churches. The aim of the project is to introduce Poles in the country to the history of Polish parishes and cemeteries in selected US cities. Photographs were taken in Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburg, Syracuse and Buffalo.

The photographic documentation produced was used to prepare the exhibition "Let's go to America! Clippings from the history of the Polish American community". Photographs by Norbert Piwowarczyk depicting so-called Polish cathedrals, i.e. Polish temples, were complemented by images of the contemporary Polish presence in the USA.

The exhibition is available online on the Google Arts & Culture portal on the Institute's Polonica profile under the heading 'Polish cathedrals'. Meanwhile, the exhibition in its outdoor form was shown, among others, at Krakowskie Przedmieście in Warsaw (in front of the Kordegarda. Gallery of the National Cultural Centre) and at the Kazimierz Pułaski Museum in Warka.