This study surveys the emergence and growth of Slavic and East European scholarship in the United States, situating academic courses, libraries, and research within waves of mass immigration and broader American cultural development. It chronicles early individual efforts in the nineteenth century, the establishment of formal instruction around the turn of the century, institutional and community initiatives before World War I, developments between the wars and the expansion after 1939, and concludes by assessing curricular structure, language training, graduate work, area studies, and future tasks. The narrative emphasizes how immigrant communities shaped American knowledge and the uneven progress of scholarly infrastructure.