The Historical and Literary Society, (Polish: Towarzystwo Historyczno-literackie, French: Société historique et littéraire polonaise – SHLP) a successor organisation to the Literary Society, was founded in Paris in 1832 as a Polish political and cultural association by a group that included Alexandre Walewski, Napoleon's natural son and future minister of foreign affairs of Napoleon III.

By 1854, it had amalgamated again into the Historical and Literary Society (Towarzystwo Historyczno-Literackie, THL) and since that date has continuously occupied premises at 6, Quai d'Orleans on the Ile Saint-Louis.

In 1838, the publications subcommittee, composed of Eustachy Januszkiewicz, (business partner of the publisher, Aleksander Jełowicki), Walerian Kalinka, Julian Klaczko, doubtless egged on by the tireless administrator, Karol Sienkiewicz, conceived the project of a Polish library in Paris.

[5] Faced with an existential threat to their centuries-old cultural heritage, Poles of the Great Emigration sought sanctuary in the country of their oldest ally, France.

It hosted the continuing creativity and debate of a network of notable entrepreneurs, intellectuals, writers, musicians and artists and acted as a 'safe-deposit' for those items of national significance that could be saved and transported away from pillage and conflagration.

In summary, a debating society that had taken on the biggest salvage operation it is possible to do, has become a lean board to steer the management of a heritage asset and a research institute that is also a purveyor of cultural events.