On January 9, 2025 the National Library of Lithuania hosted a book presentation of an exceptional photo album Gabalėliai Lietuvos: Amerika (Pieces of Lithuania: The United States of America), prepared by Augustinas and Aistė Žemaitis.
More than one hundred Lithuanian churches and more than fifty Lithuanian cemeteries have been built in the USA. Over one hundred and fifty monuments to Lithuania and Lithuanians have been erected. Lithuanian museums, monasteries, clubhouses have been active in America. Some of the most famous Lithuanians are buried there; streets and squares are named in their honor.
Many of those places are historical, unique and incredibly important. There are Lithuanian churches, which, according to the authors of the new book, are grander than Lithuanian cathedrals. Lithuanian American clubs are older than the Republic of Lithuania itself. The modern Lithuanian architectural style created by Lithuanian architects in the USA is absent in Lithuania.
This cultural heritage has been paid tribute to in the photo album Pieces of Lithuania, which contains almost 1,000 photos and 14 maps. The authors of the book, who traveled over 60,000 kilometers during the seven years of their expedition “Target America,” visited and photographed all those places themselves, compiled maps and collected stories about the objects.
During those expeditions, an online map of Lithuanian places in the USA and Canada and an online encyclopedia of Lithuanian heritage outside Lithuania were created. Currently, the map of Lithuanian places in North America compiled by Žemaitis already contains more than 800 Lithuanian objects with their exact coordinates and descriptions (http://www.tikslasamerika.lt). The encyclopedia Gabaleliailietuvos.lt describes Lithuanian heritage in more than forty countries of the world.