We would like to invite you to a special evening dedicated to the story of Czech emigrants in the United States and the legacy they left behind in thousands of Czech books, newspapers, magazines, and other printed materials. The evening will also include the launch of the September issue of National Geographic, whose major feature story is devoted to this very topic.
From the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century, hundreds of thousands of Czechs and Slovaks emigrated to the United States. In Chicago alone, around 150,000 Czechs lived there after World War I. A distinctive Czech world emerged there, with schools, churches, theaters, Sokol organizations, banks, pubs—and, above all, its own newspapers and books. In the 1920s and 1930s, dozens of Czech periodicals were published in the United States, along with hundreds of books each year. At that time, one could live an entire life in America in the Czech language.
Today, however, these records of Czech life across the ocean are irretrievably disappearing. At the gathering, we will present a report on the effort to save these valuable documents, followed by a short discussion on why it is important to seek them out, what they can reveal to us, and why they matter. Czech newspapers published in Chicago, Iowa, Texas, or Nebraska are not merely a testimony to Czech emigrants – they are also part of the history of the United States.
In Czech. RSVP by filling out the form below.
