The Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies is pleased to announce that Peter Dajevskis has been awarded the 2025-2026 Baumanis Grant for Creative Projects in Baltic Studies for his project about Latvian immigration to Philadelphia.
The Baumanis Grant is an award made to honor Velta Marija Baumanis of Mount Brydges, Ontario, who left a generous bequest to AABS at the end of her career as an architect. An award of up to $7,000 is available for any creative project (e.g., book, film, exhibit, etc.) that promotes Baltic studies. Preference is given to topics with a pan-Baltic or comparative aspect. Applicants must be members of the AABS at the time of application.
The 2025 applications were evaluated by the AABS 2025-2026 Grants and Awards Committee consisting of AABS VP for Professional Development Dr. Kaarel Piirimäe, AABS President Dr. Jörg Hackmann, and AABS Director-at-Large Dr. Dovilė Budrytė. Learn about the other 2025-2026 recipients here.
Peter Dajevskis has been president and co-founder of the firm Interpretive Solutions, Inc. (IS), consultants to cultural institutions for over 30 years. In collaboration with his wife and business partner, Ann Clausen, IS has provided interpretive planning and exhibit development services to museums and various historic sites across the United States, including the US National Park Service and 24 visitor centers administered by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. In Philadelphia, IS developed interpretive plans for the Water Works Interpretive Center and the Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site. Prior to establishing IS, Peter served as Hill International’s project management liaison to design architect Gunnar Birkerts for the new National Library of Latvia building. Before that, under contract with Hill, he was construction administrator for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian at the George Gustav Heye Center in New York City. Prior to that assignment, he served as associate capital construction manager for the New York Public Library. In recent years, Peter has managed exhibit development and facilities upgrades for the American Latvian Association’s Latvian Museum. In 2026, with support from an AABS Baumanis Grant for Creative Projects, Peter collaborated with film director Māra Pelēcis to produce the first chapter of a three part documentary series that tells the story of pre-WWII Latvian immigration to Philadelphia.
Project Overview: The Early Latvians of Philadelphia: Seeking New Beginnings, 1890 -1940
A 6-8 minute long video production will interpret the circumstances of life in Courland (Kurzeme) in the historical territories of Latvia which was under Czarist rule in the late 19th century. The video’s storyline will offer insight into the impetus for Latvian immigration to Philadelphia in the 1890s and additional immigration to the city during the early 20th century. Roberts Līdums book Latvians – the Freedom Seekers (Latviešu Brīvības Meklētāji, Greenwood Printers -Canada, 1973) will inform the scripting process. Līdums documentation of personal accounts from diaries along with other sources such as minutes and correspondence from the archives of the “Philadelphia Society of Free Letts,” established in 1892 as a non-profit mutual aid Society, will support content development for the project.
The rich visual archives of the late Andris Straumanis who researched the Latvian immigrant experience in the Philadelphia region will help illustrate the main strands of this complex history, including adaptations to a new urban life and the challenges of ethnic identity maintenance upon arrival in the United States. Permission to use the Wisconsin based Andris Straumanis collection has been granted by his estate. The story addressed in this video will present one element in a universal theme of people throughout history who have met the challenges of economic, political and cultural suppression by seeking new beginnings. The video will be produced as an initial demonstration project to lend a broader cross-Atlantic interpretive perspective to Baltic Studies that builds new connections for contemporary audiences about the story of Baltic immigration to the United States in the pre-World War II era.