James Polzois papers

James Demetrios Polzois was born in Harlan, Iowa, on January 13, 1939 to Cecile T. Christensen and Nicholas D. Polzois. After graduating from high school in Harlan, Polzois briefly attended the University of Iowa, where he majored in history. In 1961 he joined the U.S. Army Artillery and was stationed in Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Polzois was transferred to the Army Reserve in 1963. During this time he continued his studies at the Berryman Piano Conservatoire in Omaha and at The Creighton University in Omaha. He graduated from The Creighton University with a bachelor’s degree in 1966 and was honorably discharged from the Army Reserve in 1967. Polzois moved to Charleston, South Carolina, around 1973 and worked as the sexton at the Unitarian Universalist Church. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Polzois became business partners with Betsy Donlon, owner of the Charleston Packet, an art and gift shop. Prints of his posters were sold in the shop along with his miniature houses. In the early 1980s he was also the organist at the Huguenot Church. Polzois continued to study art and architecture in Charleston. In 1995 he published a set of twenty-five prints titled Building and Design in Early Charleston, and in 2001 a set of sixteen art prints titled Measured Drawings of Charleston Houses, Churches and Public Houses. He died in Charleston on September 17, 2018.