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Collection illustrates establishment and years of activities of the Association of Polish Priests of Connecticut (APPC). The association was initially established under the Polish name Zjednoczenie Kaplanow Polskich in 1915. The main mission was to establish a religious association of clergy who shared common ethnic heritage. The association represented the interests of Polish clergy within the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, which was almost exclusively run by clergy of the Irish heritage. The APPC was instrumental in organizing the celebration of the Millennium of Polish Christianity in 1966, which was a hallmark of public manifestation of religious and cultural links between Polish Americans and the country of their forefathers. The association made numerous financial contributions to the Catholic Church in Poland and sponsored a major book publication - a biography of Monsignor Bojnowski. In February of 1991 the association became an affiliate member of a national organization - the Polish American Priests Association, which was established in San Antonio, Texas.

Audrey Phillips Beck was born on 6 August 1931, in Brooklyn, New York. Her family moved to Norwalk, Connecticut, where Audrey grew up. In 1948, she entered the University of Connecticut, where she received both her B.A. and M.A. degrees. In 1961, Audrey Beck became a University of Connecticut faculty member in the Economics Department, a position she held for seven years. In 1967, she took a position as economist with the Windham Regional Planning Commission, and was elected to the Connecticut House of Representatives, where she served until 1975. Following her three terms in the House, Beck spent one year as a visiting professor of practical politics at Rutgers University. That same year, she was elected to the Connecticut State Senate, where she sat on the State Senate Education Committee, the Senate Finance Committee, and acted as Assistant Majority Leader from 1977-1983. Audrey Beck died on 11 March 1983, at the age of fifty-one.