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Summary for: Historic Czech-American books and newspapers find a new home in CzechiaHistoric books, newspapers and magazines produced by Czech and Slovak emigrant communities in the United States were formally handed over to Czech institutions Tuesday at Prague’s Černín Palace.
The collection includes the first Czech-American edition of Božena Němcová’s Babička, published in 1916, alongside periodicals created for Czech-speaking readers across the Atlantic.
The publications will go to institutions including the National Museum, National Library, Military History Institute and Museum of Czech Literature. US Ambassador Nicholas Merrick joined Czech Foreign Ministry representatives at the ceremony.
Preserving a language across the Atlantic
The publications reflect the cultural life built by emigrants who began leaving the Czech and Slovak lands for America in significant numbers during the second half of the 19th century.
Deputy Foreign Minister Radek Augustin said families seeking work and better lives maintained connections to their homeland through language, customs and community organizations.
“They published Czech books, newspapers and magazines in America, performed Czech theater and exercised in Czech Sokol associations,” he said.
After World War I, the United States had nine Czech daily newspapers, 43 weeklies and 31 monthlies, according to Augustin.
That publishing activity created a record of communities adapting to American life while continuing to communicate in Czech. However, not all those publications reached libraries and archives, leaving gaps in the material available to researchers.
The 1916 edition of Babička, known in English as The Grandmother, is one example of Czech literature being published for readers far from its country of origin. It is the first Czech-American edition, rather than the novel’s original edition, which appeared in 1855.
Newspapers reveal overlooked lives
Historian and former Czech consul general in Los Angeles Jaroslav Olša Jr. highlighted the value of emigrant newspapers as historical sources.
Without those newspapers, researchers would not know that four Czech Americans died in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, he said.
Such publications can preserve details about individuals and communities that are difficult to find elsewhere, giving researchers a way to reconstruct connections between Czech and American history.
Merrick said the collection also demonstrates the contribution Czech immigrants made to the United States.
Czech families settled in Chicago, Texas, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Iowa and other places during the 19th and 20th centuries, enriching American culture and participating in public life, he said.
“You Czechs are part of our story, and we are part of yours,” the ambassador added.
The transfer brings those accounts into Czech collections, preserving material created by emigrants and their descendants for future research into the communities they established overseas.
