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Relief Committee. In October 1915 Marcella
Sembrich and her husband Wilhelm Stengler
tendered their resignations. The Committee,
although still receiving donations, went into
receivership and finally closed down its offices
on July 1, 1916.
To date, I have come across three items
documenting the fundraising efforts of the
committee. Figure 4 shows the card addressed
to Mrs. Ditson in which references are made
to Marcella Sembrich’s concert at Carnegie
Hall in New York City on January 12, 1915. A
few years ago, I saw a program and a menu
card on eBay from a dinner given on April
11, 1915 to Madame Marcella Sembrich by
The Bohemians, a New York Musicians Club.
The dinner was held at the dinner theatre
Delmonicos (during this time Delmonicos had
restaurants at two locations: one downtown
at South William Street, where this event
likely took place,
and uptown at 5th
Avenue and 44th
Street). The menu
has a photo-picture
of Mme. Sembrich
in medallion on the
right-hand side and a
red-and-white ribbon
with an image of a
white eagle on the
left. The postcard
presented in Figure
5 shows the Polish
Benefit Concert given
by Mme. Sembrich
on August 20, 1915 at
Arden Forest Theatre
in Lake Placid, NY.
Between 1915 and
1921 Mme. Sembrich
spent her summers at
Lake Placid.
During a year and a
half of activities, the
American-Polish Relief Committee’s fundraising
efforts resulted in the collection of nearly $500,000.
The assistance was sent to the Central National
Committee in Cracow, the Relief Committee of
Bishop of Cracow – Prince Adam Sapieha, the
Central Civic Committee in Warsaw, and to the
General Relief Committee for Victims of War in
Poland (Switzerland). *
Figure 3. A “gruss aus” (pozdrowienie z) type of postcard with undivided
back likely issued before 1900. Card # 9 in the series “great and famous
individuals from Poland” (wielcy i slawni ludzie z Polski). The English translation
of the Polish text reads as follows: “Marcelina Kochanska-Sembrich,
born 1858 in Wisniowczyk, Galician Podolia. High class European opera
singer. Former primadonna of the Dresden Opera”. Likely printed in Cracow
(Austrian part of Poland); no indication by whom.
Figure 4. A card written by Mme Marcella
Sembrich to Mrs. Ditson making reference
to her upcoming Polish benefit concert at
Carnegie Hall in New York on January 12, 1915.
Figure 5 - A real photo postcard showing Mme Sembrich’s
Polish benefit concert on August 20, 1915, at Lake Placid Club
- Arden Forest Theatre.
296 • the CP / le PC • SO06